


Wrecked

by WanderlustandFreedom



Series: Collaborations [1]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Ben is disapproving but trusting., Betrayal, Dating, Denial of Feelings, Destruction of Auradon, Evil Plans, F/M, Kings & Queens, Mal is conflicted., Mental Link, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmates, Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-30
Updated: 2020-09-15
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:34:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 56,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25600657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WanderlustandFreedom/pseuds/WanderlustandFreedom
Summary: “Nothing’s wrong with us.”“Oh really? So everybody blabs to their soulmate as much as you do?”Mal's entire life has been dedicated to hiding the fact she has a soulmate from her mother and doing her best to ignore the person on the other end of her connection. But when she's invited to - and dropped - into the middle of Auradon as some sort of charity project, that all goes up in smoke. She needs her soulmate more than she wants to admit, and he wants her more than either of them will acknowledge.Written in collaboration with HarryPotterFan1995 of Fanfiction.net
Relationships: Ben/Mal (Disney: Descendants), Doug/Evie (Disney: Descendants), Jane/Carlos de Vil, Jay/Li Lonnie
Series: Collaborations [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1976020
Comments: 95
Kudos: 325





	1. Go Away!

**Author's Note:**

> Written in collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1995 on Fanfiction.net. 
> 
> We don't own Descendants. 
> 
> This will soon be available on FF.net.

Mal drew thick, dark lines into the wall mural of Jay. She focused particularly on the contour of his shoulders and long, streaky hair. Rain pattered down on the roof and rolled off into the streets below. The door onto the scaffolding was shut, and the window blockaded with cardboard and duct tape. Outside, it had been raining for two days. It was late October, so the precipitation was a mixture of dirty water and grey slush. God bless the barrier for preventing air circulation and giving everyone on the Isle garbage-infused rain. 

They weren’t freezing, mostly thanks to Evie who made their clothes and kept them warm, and Jay for hauling cardboard and tin sheets on top of their roof to help seal it up. Mal had been layering for the last three days. Tank top on long-sleeve shirt on short-sleeved shirt on Evie’s special Isle jacket. Carlos, Jay, and Evie were also layering. Right now, her team was huddled in a small spread of ratty blankets amid the few mattresses they’d managed to pilfer. Carlos was fiddling with one of his gadgets, Evie was embroidering something, and Jay had leaned back, pulled his beanie over his eyes, and gone to sleep.

As Mal added a vibrant blue color over the emblem on Jay’s jacket, she heard a panicked gasp from behind. She spun with the spray can outstretched and stared at Carlos, who was looking around in surprise. Both Evie and Jay looked equally surprised. 

“Did you guys hear that?” Carlos asked in shock. 

“Hear what?” Jay asked. He looked around the apartment suspiciously. Mal studied the look on Carlos’s face. He looked amazed as he searched for the source of the sound he’d heard. A sense of dread spread throughout her stomach. 

“It was a girl,” Carlos said, sounding amazed. “She asked, ‘what’s your name?’”

Mal had to swallow a gulp as she lowered the spray can and pressed her arms to her sides to stop them from shaking. “No one said anything, Carlos,” she said softly. “You probably imagined it.”

“Or it could have been your soulmate.” Evie shrugged, setting down your project. “Did you get kind of a warm or a cold feeling along your spine?”

“Yeah.” Carlos nodded. “Yeah, I did. What’s a soulmate?”

“Just your other half.” Jay waved the question away, sitting back like everything had been resolved as Mal’s grip grew increasingly tight on the can. “It’s not as big as it’s cracked up to be.”

“I think they’re wonderful.” Evie’s eyes turned dreamy. “I haven’t had my first contact yet, but I’m sure they’ll be royalty from Auradon!”

Jay snorted. “Yeah, whatever,” he scoffed. “It’s not automatic True Love, Evie. A soulmate is more like… your best shot at a best friend.”

Carlos leaned forward, listening to every word. “What do they do? Who are they?” he asked. 

“It’s someone who you connect with better than any other person in existence,” Jay said. “Almost everyone has one. If you get really in-tune with yours, you can actually start sharing thoughts and senses, but that’s extremely rare. Most people just get to talk with theirs mentally every once in a while. You usually hear them for the first time when you’re twelve to fourteen, but evidently with some people it happens a bit later.” He leaned over and pinched Evie’s arm, who yelped. 

“You have one then?” Carlos asked. “A soulmate?” 

“Yeah.” Jay nodded. “I heard mine almost two years ago, back when I was thirteen. She’s a girl. We talked swords for a few seconds.” And, like clockwork, they looked up at Mal, who had to fight to keep the telltale colors of sickness off her face. “Do you know yours, Mal?” Jay asked. 

Mal stared with wide eyes and a cold began to creep down her spine. For a moment, she thought it was dread, but then she felt her soulmate’s tentative emotions creep through her and realized it was actually their connection opening. Horrible timing. She panicked. “I don’t have a soulmate,” she said quickly. “I’ve never felt a connection like what you’re describing.” There. Clever words.

Against her will, a deep and resounding sense of betrayal filled her. She turned back to the wall and arced the spray paint over her mural. 

“ _ Why would you say that _ ?” her soulmate asked. “ _ That’s hurtful _ .” Mal bit her lip as she tried to shove his feelings away like they were her own, but unfortunately, he was much more accepting of his emotions than she was. She didn’t know how to explain that her own connection was unlike anything she’d ever heard about and it freaked her out. She didn’t know how to tell him that she had never felt the things he felt on a daily basis and they scared her every time their connection randomly opened. She did know, however, to tell him to  _ quit doing that  _ in as commanding a tone as she could. It rarely worked _. _

“ _ It’s a weakness. An abnormality. They could tell someone. _ ” Mal said in a brash, stubborn tone. Not just someone, of course. If this information ever found its way back to her mother, who knew what would happen? Maleficent, the Mistress of Evil, had never had a soulmate and felt nothing but disdain for those who did. The words “weakness” and “abnormality” had fallen straight out of the Dark Queen’s mouth. She was powerful, she had told Mal, because she didn’t have some pathetic fool attached to her like nearly everyone else. And, she had pointed out, more people lacked soulmates on the Isle than anywhere else. To have a soulmate… it was a characteristic associated with Auradon and heroes and everything good in the world. The thought that her own daughter could have such a trait - it was too shameful to consider. 

“ _ So what? _ ” he asked, just as stubbornly. Mal felt anger, hot and fierce, spike through her. She couldn’t tell if it was hers or his. The more they talked, the more the emotions blurred. She heard his voice in her ears like he was standing next to her. His emotions ran under her skin in an icy stream that seemed to warm her up as it rushed by. It was strange. 

“ _ So, I don’t want to get beaten up because my soulmate and our whole connection is super freaky _ ,” she snapped. It wasn’t just an insult. Most people had their first connection when they were twelve or thirteen, like Jay had said, but she’d had hers at the age of five. As she’d gotten older, they’d had more and more full-length conversations, which was practically unheard of. And despite that, he was secretive. She didn’t know his name, his age, his parents, anything about him. Mal wondered if he was the son of a minor villain and was embarrassed by that. She could let slip who her mother was and lord it over him, but she didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of finding out things about her when she knew nothing about him. 

“ _ Who would beat up someone because of their soulmate? And besides, our connection’s just different because - _ ” He stopped talking abruptly. 

“ _ Because...? _ ” she asked with a furrowed brow. Realization began to dawn in her head. He knew. His guilt crept through her spine; cold and condemning. “ _ You know? _ ” she sputtered. “ _ You know what’s wrong with us? _ ”

“ _ Nothing’s wrong with us _ ,” he corrected. Indignation began to build in her heart.

_ “Oh really? So everybody blabs to their soulmate as much as you do?” _ She looked back up at the mural on the wall and realized her eyes had started to glow as she aggravated herself more and more. She quickly calmed herself down before her friends could notice. 

She directed her attention to him. He had noticed something that was making him uneasy. 

“ _ It’s because you have magic, _ ” he said quietly. “ _ Really strong magic. Am I right? _ ”

She blinked. That hadn’t been at all what she was expecting. “ _ Is that a problem? _ ” He must have felt the power surging behind her eyes - an all too common occurrence, as anger was a very common emotion on the Isle. Mal wondered how he knew that he’d been feeling the effects of magic. Fascinating. 

“ _ No, not at all. It’s just… I think that’s why our connection is so strong. I thought it was _ ...” he paused. Her irritation grew into frustration. The Isle of the Lost’s barrier suppressed all magic within its borders. Yet somehow, even though she couldn’t use it, she got all the awful side effects. Side effects like  _ him _ .

“ _ Whatever, _ ” she thought to him, officially done playing host to this mysterious voice for today. “ _ Whatever, whatever, whatever. _ ” Then she screwed her eyes closed, focused, and threw him out of her mind. The chill faded in her spine. She felt a sense of accomplishment at being able to shut the door between them, even though she knew it would now be a few more weeks before she’d have the opportunity to wrench any more answers from him. That, and the next time they talked, their connection would be stronger. It always was when they learned new things about each other or about the connection. She wondered what would be different this time. Maybe she’d actually be able to shut his emotions out of her system as she could with hers?

“Jay,” Carlos said, pulling her attention back to her friend’s conversation. “How can I talk to my soulmate again?”

Mal groaned internally. If this was their conversation for the next hour, she was going to scream.


	2. Lost in Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Past altercations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not going to lie, I'm in a bad place tonight. This week has been rough. I sprained my ankle, busted my phone, had my car break down, and there is a COVID case in my family. Here's to hoping tomorrow will be better. 
> 
> This story is a collaboration between myself and Harry Potter Fan 1997 on Fanfiction.net. She is an incredibly talented writer who I adore so much.

The first time she’d heard that fuzzy voice, Mal had been throwing rocks at Drizella’s window as a kid. Jay had been right beside her, snickering and ducking whenever a pebble rebounded on the cracked glass. She had picked up a sizable stone, wondering if it would be the one that would shatter the window, and a cold feeling began to creep up her spine. She’d paused mid-throw.

_ “Hello? Can you hear me?”  _ The voice sounded distorted, as if it were coming from the old TV in her house. She’d been told it wasn’t clear because of “bad reception”, whatever that meant. Sometimes it was hard to understand the words and she had to turn the volume all the way up - but right now, there was no TV in sight. This sound was coming from everywhere and nowhere at once.

“Who said that?” she wondered out loud. 

Jay turned to look at her funny. Before he could reply, there was an explosion from above. His rock had finally broken Drizella’s window. Jay was showered with glass, and he yelped in pain. While Mal laughed at him, the cold feeling disappeared and she thought nothing of it for months.

* * *

The time after that, though, she had been alone.

_ “Hello? Are you there? It’s me again!” _

Six-year-old Mal had nearly jumped out of her skin. She’d attributed the sudden chill to a weird draft and had pulled her thin blanket tightly around her body. “Who’s there?” she whispered into the dark, putting as much ferocity as she could muster behind her question.

_ “I’m not _ there, _ there. I’m your soulmate. I’m in your head. _ ”

She gaped. Before she could respond, all of it was gone. The uncomfortable feeling in her back, the not-quite-clear conversationalist, and any certainty about her sanity. She’d heard the word “soulmate” before, though. Never in a good way. The word had rocked their house worse than thunder when her mother ranted about the weak-mindedness of the fools on the mainland. It had dropped onto the heads of many as Maleficent encouraged her followers, by example, to stone whichever soulmate-connected abominations dared walk below their balcony. It had been engraved in her head as a bad thing - a curse. And now she’d contracted it.

This would have to remain a secret for now.

* * *

_ “So, who are you? _ ” she prodded a few interactions later. Mal was no longer startled by his appearances in her head and was able to keep her composure even if their connection opened in the middle of class. By the time she was eight, the voice had become clear as a bell. No more bad reception.

“ _ I’m…just a person. Like you. _ ”

“ _ I mean, are you a boy, or a girl? _ ”

“ _ A boy. _ ”

“ _ Tell me your name. _ ” 

“ _ I don’t really want to. _ ”

“ _ Why not? _ ” She allowed herself to frown, as there was no one nearby. Mal wasn’t used to people defying her. Even at this young age, she cleared rooms simply by being the daughter of Maleficent.

_ “Because… I like that you don’t know who I am. Names have a lot of power behind them. And they mean lots of things. _ ”

“ _ Oh, come on. I’ll tell you mine. _ ”

“ _ No, I don’t want to! _ ” Anger filled her - but it wasn’t quite her feeling it. The feeling came tinged with something foreign that made every nerve ending in her body scream ‘ _ danger _ !’ She jumped out of her chair and clenched her fists against the strange emotion, which was quickly replaced by fear that was very much her own. “ _ Hey, are you okay? _ ” the other person in her head asked cautiously. He sounded rather guilty. “ _ Sorry I got mad. I didn’t mean to scare you. _ ”

“ _ I’m fine, but - no, wait, I’m not. How do you know I’m not? Did you do that? _ ” she demanded.

“ _ Do what? _ ”

“ _ Did you - I don’t know. But you did it, didn’t you? You made me feel like...like… _ ” 

“ _ What I was feeling. And I just felt what you were feeling. _ ” His awe was unmistakable. “ _ That’s really cool. _ ”

“ _ It is  _ not _ really cool! _ ” she snapped so harshly that she felt him jump back in her head. It was as if he had tripped and toppled out of sight because he suddenly left and the cold tingle in Mal’s spine disappeared. She was left alone once more. 

Her mother had been right. These…’connections’ were curses. Someone else had access to her head - to what she was feeling, and it seemed to be getting worse. The boy was able to share his emotions with her. Disgusting. And very, very dangerous.

* * *

There was an accident when she was eleven. She and Uma’s gang had been facing off against each other, as usual, this time on the deck of the Jolly Roger. Someone had tripped, a sword had swung wide, and a sandbag dangling in the air had been cut loose. It fell with a thud onto Jay, and he shouted in pain as his leg bent back in a way it shouldn’t have.

They had been younger then, Uma and she, and the event spooked them. The battle ended and Mal and Carlos were allowed to carry Jay home while he yelped and cried in pain, with Evie following close behind. They had been building a hideaway - a place where they could fortify themselves - but it wasn’t completed yet. So instead, they went to Mal’s place.

The thing about Maleficent was that she rarely spoke or moved on her good days. She simply sat, watching the world go by, or watching people pass below her balcony, and refused to move. But on her bad days… fiery words that hit like bullets, anger that knew no bounds, curses against the Auradon government or Aurora, or anything that she felt especially hateful towards that day. Sometimes, it was Mal. Other times, it was the Isle, or her henchmen, or soulmates...but somehow still ended up involving Mal.

Her mother looked near-comatose when they dropped Jay onto the couch. He shouted and Mal couldn’t stop the worrying power surge that burned behind her eyes. His leg looked… awful. His skin was straining against itself as a broken bone threatened to surface. 

Nausea hit her in waves. She swallowed back bile. Her hands shook as she pulled the leg as straight as she could and fumbled when she reached for the long, straight pieces of wood that Carlos had dumped at her side. Across the room, Evie hurried up the steps with her arms full of white and tan bandages. 

“Did you mess up?” Maleficent called from the balcony. 

Mal swallowed. Her entire body felt cold and stiff. “We’re fine,” she responded. Her voice croaked like she’d been coughing. And her hands were icy as she tried to straighten out Jay’s leg and ignore his cries. 

“ _ Are you sick? _ ”

The question was bizarre to Mal. She glanced sharply over at her mother and then realized that she hadn’t spoken. No one had. It was in her head.

_ “Is that you? _ ” she demanded in her head.

“ _ Yes. Are you alright? _ ”

“ _ You’ve picked a really bad time. You need to go away. _ ”

“ _ I…don’t know how to. _ ”

Mal tightened the beginnings of a first bandage around Jay’s leg. He let out a deafening roar of pain. Tears pooled in her eyes as she kept working and he kept yelling. Across the room, the thumps of Maleficent’s scepter began to echo.

“Pipe down!” Maleficent shouted and Jay clenched his mouth shut. Her mother shouts and Jay’s screams echoed in her head.

“ _ Is that you? _ ” the boy in her head exclaimed. Even more panic filled her and her hands shook all the more. 

“ _ No! _ ” she snapped mentally. “ _ No! No! Go away! _ ”

“ _ Are you hurt? Do you need a doctor? _ ”

“ _ Leave me alone! _ ”

“ _ I want to help you! _ ”

“I don’t need your help!” Mal screamed, throwing her hands up to compress her head tightly. “Leave me alone!” 

The room became very silent. Evie, Carlos, and even Jay were staring at her with concern. The cold crept out of Mal’s spine, but it was quickly replaced with dread when her hair was seized and yanked back. She was now staring into a pair of eyes as vividly green as her own. 

“What do you think you’re doing?” Maleficent screeched. “Who are you talking to?”

“No one!” Mal squeaked. “No one - no one! I thought I saw Evie reaching over… I wasn’t talking to anyone!”

Evie blinked, startled, and scuttled back a few feet as Maleficent’s gaze swiveled onto her. “I’m sorry!” she yelped. “I didn’t realize!”

Maleficent pulled harder on her daughter’s hair. “If you’re lying…” she growled. 

“I’m not!” Mal squeezed her eyes shut. Bright lights danced in her vision as the pain in her scalp reached a nauseating level. “Who else would I have been talking to? No one else is around! Mom, lemme go!” She twisted and Maleficent released her. Mal fell back and saw stars when her head knocked into the jagged, beat-up coffee table. 

Maleficent snarled a little and kicked her daughter’s leg. Mal didn’t react much - she was still trying to catch her breath. Then, Maleficent turned and walked towards the kitchen as if nothing had happened. Carlos and Evie both reached to help Mal up, but she batted a hand at them and hissed. 

“Get back!” Mal forced herself to her knees. “Away from me! Go away! You’re too close!”

“Mal?” Carlos asked softly, “What was that?”

“It was you two invading my space!” Mal snapped. “Carlos, go find ice for Jay’s head. Evie, run to your mother’s and see if she has anything for pain in her emporium.”

There was a short hesitation and then the two got up and left. Mal continued binding Jay’s leg. He squeezed his eyes shut and bit his lip so as not to annoy Maleficent while she continued steaming at the kitchen table.  _ It’s a good thing _ , Mal thought,  _ that he’s in too much pain to ask questions. _

By the following day, everyone had forgotten. Everyone except her.

* * *

A few minutes after waking up on her twelfth birthday, Mal felt a shiver down her spine before the cold was replaced with a wonderful, contented warmth. 

Mal knew the connection was open, but she didn’t really understand what it was doing at the moment. Little echoes of sound were pinging around in his thoughts. Alarming, yes, but something else was bothering her. She felt...happy? But it was his happiness. She would’ve known that even if they hadn’t been sharing emotions for months now. Mal did not feel happiness like this. 

The echoes formed into snippets of the conversation he was focusing on. “ _ But this part… I really liked… even though Sir Arthur ruined… _ ”

“ _ What are you doing? _ ” she asked. She could feel his immediate surprise on the other end of the connection. He hadn’t realized she was there. Interesting. 

“ _ What - oh! It’s you. Hello. I’m having lunch with my mom. Sorry, I thought the cold was just a breeze until you started talking. _ ”

_ “Lunch with your mom? _ ” Mal repeated. What kind of parent had lunch with their kids?

“ _ Yeah. I just finished her favorite book and we’re talking about it. Have you ever read Guinevere and Lancelot? _ ” A spike of her own jealousy accosted him before he could speak further. “ _ Um...everything okay? _ ”

“ _ Yes, _ ” she huffed. “ _ So your mom just...what, talks to you? About books? _ ”

“ _ Why are you saying that like it’s weird? _ ”

She rolled her eyes. “ _ Because it is! Whose mom just sits down with them and...I don’t know, aren’t you scared she’ll scream at you? Or hit you? _ ”

There was such an extended length of silence that Mal would’ve thought the connection had closed, had she not been able to feel the characteristic chill in her spine. “ _ Does your mom do that to you? _ ” he inquired slowly. She didn’t like the pity in his tone.

“ _ Maybe yours should, too, so you don’t end up a complete wimp! _ ” 

Mal could feel the boy turning this information over, processing how he felt about it. He didn’t speak to her again, even though the mental link remained open. She found a quiet place in her room to wait for it all to be over. For almost twenty minutes, Mal was treated to more warm feelings of someone else’s motherly love on her birthday, and she knew he could feel her trying not to cry.

* * *

Cruella De Vil was over on Tuesday, since her TV was broken and she wanted to watch the evening fashion shows. Carlos and Mal sat next to each other on a very busted couch and played card games with a soggy deck while they watched Cruella flip through shows. Maleficent was up in her room, having retired early. 

“Do you think she can hear us?” Mal asked, shuffling the deck as best she could and glancing over at Carlos’s mom. 

“If we get loud enough, she’ll turn and yell,” Carlos whispered back. He took his seven cards and they began a game that Jay had invented called Murder. The goal was to avoid having two of one type of card when the sand in their broken hourglass ran out. 

Mal put an ace down and Carlos put a two, and then the TV sound spiked and Cruella shouted in frustration. Her show had just gone to a commercial break. 

“No one wants to hear from you, you royal piece of trash!” she screamed at the screen. “Put the Runway back on!”

“...I know I have a duty to my people, and I will - ” Mal’s soulmate’s voice entered her head again, but without the accompanying spinal chill. Mal turned around. Had it come from the TV? But the fuzzy picture was now displaying a hairspray ad. Then it flipped to a news anchor who was also cutting to a commercial. She shook her head as Cruella mashed the remote buttons and focused on the card game.

“Spoiled brat! He’s on every channel!” Cruella continued to complain loudly until her show resumed, but Carlos had beat Mal and she was too busy sulking to listen.

* * *

“Evie, please! You look fine!” whined Mal, her patience wearing thin. She just wanted to get out already. This happened with every new outfit Evie made. First, it had to be fitted just right, and then she had to accessorize, and then she spread an obscene amount of half-used cosmetics scavenged from the trash across the bathroom floor to choose which shade would adorn her face. At least they were currently on stage three: makeup.

“I’m almost done, Mal!” They weren’t even going anywhere special. They’d walk around, spray a few tags, maybe make a few kids cry. 

The cold running down the middle of her back alerted her to the boy’s presence. “ _ Oof. Someone’s frustrated _ .”

“ _ Shut up. _ ” 

“ _ My mom says hi, by the way. I told her about you. _ ”

Mal panicked momentarily, before remembering he didn’t know anything about her, not really. Thank goodness they had never shared names, or her lie would be out in the open where Maleficent would undoubtedly find it. “ _ Why would you do that? Are you insane? _ ”

“ _ Um...no? But she says she hopes you’re doing well, and she was asking if - _ ”

“ _ I don’t want to talk to your mom! _ ” snapped Mal. “ _ One mom is already enough of a problem. _ ” That quieted him, and a hint of something morose came over her.

Mal was pulled back to the real world when Evie finally exited the bathroom, twirling a little. She’d put purple accents on with her blue outfit. “How do I look?”

“It’s not the worst outfit I’ve ever seen you in,” Mal decided.

“ _ Be nice _ ,” her soulmate chided. “ _ And yeah, the purple does seem like a nice touch. _ ”

She almost frowned. “ _ I didn’t tell you that. _ ” She hadn’t even been thinking of Evie’s outfit, only raking over it with a cursory glance.

“ _ You just whispered it to me. Didn’t you? _ ”

“ _ No! _ ”

“ _ You can stop swearing -  _ “

“ _ Stop it! I’m not even saying anything to you! _ ”

“ _ Well...I hear you. _ ” She knew he could feel how deeply disturbed she was by this. But really, how was she supposed to react? He could hear her thoughts - even the ones she didn’t want to share.

* * *

“Mal, come here,” Maleficent crooned from the balcony. “Come and tell me what you see.”

Mal got up and wandered towards the open double doors. She grasped the balcony railing with chilled hands and peered around. There were people down below, dogs and children running through alleyways, the tops of tin-roofed dwellings, and an abundance of trash heaps, but Mal knew without asking what her mother was looking at. The smog was clearer today, and they could see through the barrier, across the Bay of Separation, and straight into Auradon.

“Look at them,” Maleficent muttered, even though it was impossible to see a person in Auradon from this distance. “Look at their beautiful world. Why, what perfect lives they must lead.”

“For now,” Mal shrugged and then glanced over at her mom. “Is it time to try again?” The last time Maleficent had attempted escape had been years ago. 

Maleficent shook her head in a way that was both demure and sinister. “Not yet,” she told her. “But soon. I have a plan that I’m working on… they’ll never see it coming.”

Mal knew better than to get her hopes up. If she had an Auradonian dollar for every time she’d heard that, she’d have enough to bribe someone to take her off this rock and to the place where there was real money to be made. “And then?” she asked.

Maleficent hummed. “I can’t wait until we’re free,” she announced. “We’ll rule that world over there, you and I.”

“I can’t wait to rub it in Uma’s face.” 

Maleficent snorted and then glanced over - and down - at her young daughter. “Think bigger.” She reached into her robes and withdrew something - a book - which she placed on the balcony railing and slid over to Mal. “For you,” she said. “I want you to take it and memorize as much as you can.”

Mal took the book and cracked the cover open, Her jaw dropped. “Your spell book?” she wondered aloud. “You’re letting me have it?”

“You’ll need it, one day. I’ve told you before that Fairy Godmother’s wand is the only way off this rock, but it won’t be any good without some spells to go with it.” Maleficent waved a nonchalant hand. Then, she paused.“I do wonder if you’re truly ready, though. There are some days...you’re not as evil as I thought you’d be.”

Mal was shocked by the implication. “I am!” she declared. “Mom, everyone says that I’m the best - the worst - villain kid out there! I aced Evils Schemes and Plots!”

“That class is taught by that old bat, Tremaine,” Maleficent rolled her eyes. “It would have been more impressive if you’d failed out completely.”

Mal dropped her head. She was rather proud of her grade, but… “I’ve got a gang - the strongest gang on the Isle outside of… y’know… Gaston’s crew.”

Maleficent let out a laugh at that. “You’ve got friends,” she spat. “You’d be more formidable if you dropped them and went at it alone. Alone is always the better way to go!”

Alone. Right. Mal took her hands off the railing and balled her fists up. Maleficent was a solo act. A one-woman party. Mal swallowed. She had one strong card left to play, and…

“I don’t have a soulmate,” Mal lied. “That means I’m not being dragged down by anyone else. I’m not paired with anyone because...I’m supposed to be at your side. Helping you rule.” Maleficent looked down at Mal. Mal swallowed. “Isn’t that enough?” she offered.

A piercing gaze raked over her. Maleficent looked away. “I suppose,” she agreed in a careless manner before waving her daughter away. Mal scuttled back into the room, leaving her mother to lean against the balcony, picturing Auradon as it would look burning in green flames.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is a collaboration between myself and Harry Potter Fan 1997 on Fanfiction.net. She is an incredibly talented writer who I adore so much.


	3. Interthought

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mal meets her soulmate face-to-face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994.

After he'd heard his for the first time, Carlos would not shut up about the whole soulmate thing - which was really annoying, because Mal just wanted to focus on forgetting it. He seemed thoroughly fascinated. To be fair, Mal was pretty impressed with some of the things Jay and Evie described, but so much of it wasn't applicable to her situation that it was rendered nearly useless.

Walking through the alley system of the Isle one day, she felt something on the other end of her soulmate connection. It was hard to explain, but it was like an invisible thread was connected to her forehead and she could feel someone rolling the other end in their fingers. Then the connection suddenly opened, and she realized that her other half had learned to open the connection at will, which meant she had some catching up to do. His emotions flooded her for a few seconds in a dizzying mess of patterns and then stabilized. For several seconds she thought nothing, waiting for him to announce himself.

" _Yes?_ " she finally asked.

" _Oh my goodness, it worked_ ," he gasped, sounding a bit drained.

She rolled her eyes. " _Give the man a medal. Did you need anything?_ "

" _Yeah, actually. Are you Jane?_ " he asked.

" _Jane? Who?_ " Mal frowned deeply and began to consider the long list of people that she knew. There wasn't a single person named Jane.

" _I guess not then_." He sighed dejectedly. A strange mix of relief and disappointment filled him. " _She's someone I know. It was a long shot since she doesn't usually act like you, but I thought: she has magic, not many other people have magic, maybe you're her."_

" _Nope. Never even heard of Jane. How come you're asking who I am all of a sudden? You've never asked before._ " Mal crossed her arms even though she knew it would have no effect on him. He couldn't see her; couldn't feel much else besides the effects his emotions had on her.

" _Well, I've always felt a little guilty asking you for your identity since I'm not exactly ready to share mine, but I had to know if you were Jane because I see her literally every day._ " He sighed with a bit of a dry chuckle.

" _Mm-hmm. Anything else?"_ Mal shifted her weight from foot to foot. She understood him not wanting her to know him. She didn't want him to know her either. The fewer people to spread the word, the better. But still, for some reason, the thought of Jane was really starting to bug her.

" _No_ ," he said sadly. " _Guess not."_

" _Bye then."_ His presence slinked out of her head gradually until she was alone again. She took a deep breath and leaned against the grimy wall behind her, deep in thought. Jane. Who was Jane? She sounded like she'd be a daughter of Jafar, but Jafar didn't have daughters - just Jay and his little brother. She might be one of Gaston's since Mal knew that she didn't know all of his kids (did _he_ even know all of his kids?), but Gaston couldn't possibly have a magical daughter, could he?

* * *

Nope. Mal went down to the docks to ask Gil because she was so curious about it. It killed her how her soulmate mentioning a simple name could drive her up the wall like this. What if he liked Jane? What if Jane liked him? Unhelpfully, Gil estimated that he was 80% sure he'd never heard anyone by that name in his life. Then he asked Mal what 80% was in fractions, because it was on his homework.

Mal continued drumming her fingers in agitation. She knew practically half of the Isle, more or less. And not a single person she knew was called Jane and possessed magic. Finally, she decided she'd have to ask him about it herself or go insane wondering.

Just after her sixteenth birthday, she figured out how to wrench open their connection herself. It took about two hours of sitting alone in her room and searching for the end of the connection. Finally, though, she felt the icy cold creep down her spine. She sat in triumph for a few seconds until she heard him say: "Ow."

Her triumphant spirits dropped and were replaced by a rather sour mood _. "Ow_?" She scowled. " _I'm sorry, did I hurt you?_ " She'd done it wrong. She knew it. He hadn't hurt her when _he'd_ opened the connection for the first time.

She could almost imagine him rolling his eyes at her tone. " _Chill,_ " he reprimanded. They were both older now and rather than being wary, he found her moods amusing. " _No, you didn't. I'm, ah, just in the middle of something. Got stabbed by a pin. Ow - and another one."_

" _Oh, okay."_ Mal exhaled. Pain games were common on the Isle. It wasn't her incompetence. " _Cool. Listen, I've been thinking a lot about this Jane person. I know it's dumb, but - do you like her at all? I mean - I get we're soulmates and everything - but is she, like, a girlfriend?"_ She couldn't deny she was anxiously awaiting his answer as she sat in a dark corner of her bedroom. Was that why her normally biting speech was failing her?

Sheepish and a little surprised, he paused for a second. " _Um, no. Jane is just an acquaintance_ ," he assured her. " _But… I do have a girlfriend."_

Mal's heart sank. " _Oh. Really?_ "

" _Yeah. She's an old childhood friend. But, I don't think it's working, to be honest. She doesn't know who her soulmate is and our parents are friends so we got together a while ago…_ " he trailed off.

Mal searched through her feelings, trying to separate hers from his. " _A while ago?_ "

" _Yeah. Are you okay?_ "

" _I'm fine...This is just a weird emotion. I haven't felt it before._ " It felt like someone putting weights on her shoulders and blanketing her head in a dark cloud.

" _Hurt?_ " he asked. " _You haven't felt it?_ "

" _Hurt…_ " Mal repeated softly. She carefully applied the word to the feeling and found it fit. " _Yeah, I guess so. Hurt. I feel hurt._ " Then she frowned. " _Why do I feel hurt?_ "

Instead of answering, he sighed. " _I'm sorry._ " He sounded remorseful, which combined with his apology threw Mal off a bit. " _I didn't mean to hurt you. Gah, I should have thought this through a little more_."

" _You didn't hurt me. You_ can't _hurt me. This is...for some other reason_." She didn't like the doubt creeping in from his side, so she changed the subject. " _Who is she?_ "

" _My girlfriend?_ "

" _No, your sister._ "

He laughed in her head. He sounded cheerful. It took the hurt away.

" _Her name is Audrey._ "

Audrey, Audrey, Audrey. She searched and searched, but had no memory of that name.

" _I don't know anyone named Audrey. First Jane and now Audrey._ "

" _Well, it's not a common name, but – you haven't heard of Audrey?_ "

" _Should I have?_ "

" _No, I suppose not. Auradon is a big place._ "

" _But the Isle is small. I should know them._ "

The connection nearly choked out with the sudden change in his mood. All his amused emotions were wiped from her system and replaced by a blank, unsettled feeling.

" _The Isle?_ " he whispered. " _As in, the Isle of the Lost?_ "

Mal got an extremely bad feeling. " _Yes...?_ "

If he'd been standing in front of her, she got the impression he'd have been shaking and struggling to speak.

" _Who is your parent?_ " he rasped out.

Mal pursed her lips. She was pretty sure she was Maleficent's only kid. What was the chance he'd know her? And if he did, what were the chances that he would blab to Maleficent that he was her daughter's soulmate? But something was telling Mal that she'd misjudged everything and that he wouldn't encounter her mother - and tell her Mal's greatest secret - anytime soon. She swallowed.

" _My mom. She's Maleficent._ "

A different sort of ice cold ran through her veins. Fear. Real and true fear from his side of the connection.

" _What?_ " she demanded. " _What's wrong?_ "

" _I - don't live on the Isle. I live in Auradon._ "

Mal felt her throat close up. Oh. _Oh._ Things started to make sense. Of course his mom wouldn't beat him. Of course. Of course he wouldn't understand about weaknesses. Of course. She felt her stomach drop into a deep, deep pit.

" _I-I have to go,_ " she told him quickly and mentally grabbed around, looking for a way to close the connection. She felt him start to help her by pulling his side of consciousness closed. The iciness gradually left her spine.

Mal cursed at her stupidity. Why had she taken it for granted that her soulmate would be on the Isle? Who in Auradon would be so complimentary to her as to have this kind of connection? A villain in the making, maybe?

Or what if...what if Maleficent was right? What if she was _good,_ just like all those simpering morons on the mainland? What if this was proof?

There wasn't a lot of time to feel confusion or self-pity. There were gang tags to paint, friends to lead, and mothers to deceive. Well, one mother.

* * *

It had scarcely been a week since last speaking to her soulmate when, as she finished clearing out an alleyway full of people, she felt the connection open again.

" _Hey, listen, I need you to not be mad at me._ " Mal heard the voice in her head as she blew her bangs out of her face. The exhilaration of scaring other people faded out of her system. She leaned down and snatched a lollipop away from a child before she addressed her soulmate in an irritated tone.

" _What did you do?_ " she growled.

" _No, seriously. I need you to not be mad_ ," he demanded, just as firm as her. She crinkled up her nose. She missed the days when she could easily intimidate him.

" _What did you do?_ " she asked cautiously, this time.

" _Something,_ " he mumbled.

" _Can you tell me?_ " she asked.

Before he could answer, someone shouted. People ran for cover, but not from her. They were pointing behind her. Mal grit her teeth and steeled herself before turning around. What perfect timing the Mistress of Evil had sometimes.

Two henchmen confronted her, silent and still. "There's news," Maleficent drawled, stepping out from between them. "You and your _friends_ have been chosen to go to a different school." She looked down at Mal with an intense stare, one that Mal hadn't seen in years. One that meant a plan was in action. "In Auradon."

It only took a few seconds for the news to sink in.

Mal's friends let out little shrieks but Mal simply dug her nails into her palms and turned her attention to the person on the other end of the link. " _You did this_ ," she growled.

" _You found out already?"_ he asked. Dread and worry accosted her without mercy.

" _How dare you! You brought my mother and my friends into this? How?"_ Mal demanded.

 _"You live on the Isle and I live in Auradon. We're not allowed to go over there, so how else could I have ever met you?_ " he asked.

" _Maybe I don't want to meet you,_ " Mal growled as she struggled to suppress the glow of her irises that tended to accompany very violent moods. " _Maybe I don't ever want to talk to you again, mainlander."_

 _"Great, well, too bad - it's already been done. I guess I just won't introduce myself and we'll go on like this forever."_ She could feel his annoyance, but she didn't back down.

" _I'm not saying another word to you_ ," she announced.

 _"Fine._ " The icy cold faded from her emotions.

Too much celebrating was going on, in Mal's opinion. Evie was trying to talk to her about princes and castles and the like, but Mal brushed her off. "We can't go to Auradon. Our friends are here! We don't know anyone over there, and they hate us!" she argued.

Her mother took a step closer to her. "Mal. Understand that not everything is about you and your comfort. You will go to Auradon and you will do what is _expected_ of you." The implications of that statement settled heavily on Mal's shoulders. The barrier would have to come down, just like Maleficent had always wanted. Except now, it was up to Mal to make that happen.

Her mother turned and Mal suddenly had a thought. How had he done it? How was this happening? She wished that she hadn't sent her soulmate away because now she wanted to interrogate him. It wasn't like _anyone_ in Auradon could up and decide to open the Isle of the Lost and whisk four new children to the mainland…. It made her wonder: who was he?

* * *

The four of them had piled into a very, very fancy car. There weren't many cars on the Isle, and approximately zero looked anything like this: a stretch limo with leather seats, candy and water bottles filling various nooks and pockets, a divider between themselves and the driver, and - were those color-changing lights in the roof?

Mal didn't avail herself of the bountiful harvest Jay and Carlos were currently enjoying. Even before they began driving, Carlos's mouth was covered in chocolate and Jay's jacket bulged with all of his 'findings'. As they left their parents, homes, and lives behind, only Evie glanced wistfully backward.

"We'll see them again," Mal assured her. After all, once they stole the wand, everyone on the Isle would be free.

Their driver had pressed a button on his rearview mirror while driving full speed towards the sea. The four teens ooh'ed and aah'ed as a magical bridge materialized, spanning the length of the strait that separated them from the mainland. Mal found herself mildly impressed. Then, with aid from a second button, they broke through the barrier.

The effect was instantaneous and, to Mal, almost seismic in nature. Everyone else felt it to a lesser degree - Jay and Carlos exchanged surprised looks and then closed their eyes, their expressions changing with whatever mental conversation they were having. Evie jumped and grabbed Mal's arm - "Mal! Oh, Mal, I can hear him! He's asking my name!"

Mal was a little too tied up to respond. On the one hand, the magic she had been unable to use on the Isle was now surfacing with a vengeance. On the other hand, the connection with her soulmate had opened - just as it had for Jay, Carlos, and Evie - and something was very wrong with it.

Images and sounds assaulted her - thousands of memories that were not her own. Falling off of a horse. Receiving a stern lecture from a familiar-looking man wearing a crown. Sitting in a classroom - a very nice classroom, with intact furniture and sunlight streaming in through the windows. A garden of roses, and someone singing a song just out of view. Her eyes filled with tears, and at first, she thought it was because she had never seen such a beautiful world.

But those weren't her tears, either.

" _Oh my gosh…_ " His voice sounded broken. " _Why would she do that to you_?"

" _What are you - don't - stop!_ " Mal started breathing heavily, despite years of training herself not to show her emotions physically when he was the reason for them. " _Go away, I'm still not talking to you. And I've got other things to deal with right now."_

" _How could you live like that? How could anyone live like that?"_

" _Get out of my head!"_ Whatever the mental equivalent was of picking him up and drop-kicking him as far as she could, that was what Mal did. The connection closed fairly quickly, but she was left shivering, the feeling of violation and betrayal almost overwhelming her.

" _Wow,"_ Jay said from across the car. "That was…" he ran his hands through his hair. "That was…"

"Jane _,"_ Carlos mumbled beside him, leaning his head back into the seat. "Her name is Jane."

"I wasn't able to get his name _!"_ Evie mourned. "I don't think he heard mine either! The connection closed too quickly _._ " She turned to Mal. "Did you hear anything? _"_ she asked.

Mal frowned. "Evie, I told you already that I don't have one _."_

Evie wilted. "Yes, well, I was hoping that maybe you just hadn't had your…yeah. _"_

"No, _"_ Mal shook her head. "I am a hundred percent positive I don't have one. And if I did, I would do everything I could to get rid of it. _"_

* * *

Auradon was sweltering. As soon as they crossed onto the beach, the driver turned the air conditioning all the way up. Carlos had briefly rolled down the window to catch a glimpse of the blue sky - the first clear sky they'd ever seen - before the driver had rolled it back up and used the intercom to inform them that it was probably best no one knew which car the new kids were coming in.

They soon passed through a city and then began driving underneath dozens and dozens of large, oaken trees. For a long time, there was no sign of anyone, but then Jay pointed to someone reading behind a secluded tree and suddenly it felt like people were everywhere they looked. A few pointed to the car and Mal knew they were deducing who was hidden inside the interior.

The car slowed as they came upon a white stone building with sparkling metal-wrought decorations across the top. The Auradon flag was draped over the entrance, hanging from two golden spikes driven into the stone. In front of the building was a circular drive, which they pulled into, and two lawns split with a paved pathway upon which dozens of people were crowded. Mal squinted through the tinted windows. She could discern three people in the front. One was a curvy woman in a bright shade of blue. Another, more petite girl in a rather frilly pink and yellow dress had her arm looped through the elbow of a boy next to her. The boy looked even more stupid, wearing a fitted blue suit with a folded yellow kerchief tucked inside the breast pocket. What fun it would be to rip that out and tear it into shreds in front of him.

There were other people behind them - students, a few stern teachers and worried citizens, and…was that a band? It had to be, what with the uniforms and the dozens of brass instruments they were holding. However, weren't bands supposed to sound, well...good? Or patriotic at the least? The only cause this band seemed united behind was destroying Mal's hearing before she could get out of the car.

Mal, Evie, Jay, and Carlos all exchanged glances. Carlos had a sticky brown coating on his hands and cheeks, but Jay had cleaned up well enough. As the driver got out of the car, Carlos tried the inside door. It refused to open. They were locked inside, for the time being. Mal couldn't believe they'd fallen for such a simple trick. The driver was coming around to let them out though, so she bit her lip and quelled her rage. On the other end of her soulmate connection, she felt probing, but pushed it away. He probably wanted to make sure she was here, that she was safe, possibly find out more about her identity than he already knew - but she was still angry with him.

Jay began stuffing various candies and non-meltable snacks down his shirt. His fingertips grazed over the chocolate, but Mal could see the gears turning in his head as he glanced at Carlos and decided that he didn't want a matching mess down the inside of his vest.

The door opened with a click and a hand appeared as if offering help. Carlos nudged it aside with his head, careful not to let the stranger within grasping distance of his hair, and got out. The band's pitiful attempt at a welcome song fizzled out, with one trumpeter getting the memo a second later than everyone else. Jay got out next, also shouldering aside the hand as he finished tucking lollipops and bubble gum sticks into his fingerless gloves. It was a smart move - after all, they didn't know the next time they'd see anything edible. Evie was the first to accept the proffered hand, stepping out with demure grace and a bright, excited smile. Mal watched the reactions of the onlookers outside. The boy in blue with the swanky, oh-so-tempting handkerchief was examining Evie intensely. He looked frustrated, as if something wasn't quite adding up, but was hiding it. Behind him, one of the boys in the uniforms who had a ridiculous hat atop his head dropped his trumpet with a clatter. Mal had a feeling he was the same one who had continued bleating his horn well after his bandmates had stopped. His face turned bright red as Evie's gaze swept over the crowd.

"Miss?" The driver called to her, still extending his hand. Mal snarled at the sentiment and then stepped forward. She, too, ignored his hand as she emerged into the glaring sunlight. She heard the chauffeur give an annoyed sigh, but her attention was immediately captured by the three people in front of her.

The older woman's eyes skimmed over the four and she took a deep breath. "It's nice to see you all here, safe," she smiled. "I'm Fairy Godmother, the Headmistress at Auradon Preparatory School." She gave a little bow or a curtsy - Mal never could tell the difference between the two - and Mal took the opportunity to exchange a look with her gang. "Behind me, this is - "

"Where's your wand?" Carlos blurted out, bobbing his head from side to side as he peered at Fairy Godmother, looking for hidden pockets. "Aren't you supposed to have a wand?"

The Fairy Godmother gave a tight smile. "I don't keep it on me anymore," she explained. "That was a long time ago, after all. And now, as I was saying, behind me are the people who will be introducing you to your classmates and answering all your questions. To the right here is Princess Audrey Fanning, one of our Junior Class Leaders, and this here beside her is the Crown Prince Benjamin."

Mal blinked skeptically at the prince, who was examining her as well. His lips were pursed together as his eyes hovered on the wings embroidered on her shoulders. She didn't like the way they were traveling, as if drinking in every last detail. "They let you meet us?" she drawled.

The prince's eyes snapped back up to meet hers. A smile replaced the studious line of his mouth. "I requested to meet you, actually. I was insistent that I would be the person to show you all around. After all, I'm the reason you're all here." No, he wasn't, Mal knew. Her soulmate had caused this. "I felt it was my responsibility to make sure you all feel comfortable and accepted."

' _Accepted,'_ Mal thought, glancing at Audrey's tightening grip on his arm. The princess was examining her outfit as well - focusing on the dragon applique - and looking as if she had swallowed a lemon. Ben nudged her side when her grip began to pinch too hard, still maintaining his smile.

"Prince Ben and Audrey will give you the grand tour," Fairy Godmother explained with a smile. "And I'll see you later. You have your first class with me."

"Can't wait," Mal deadpanned, then looked back to Ben and Audrey as if to dismiss the Headmistress. For several seconds, there was a long and awkward silence. Then, the prince clapped his hands together and took a half-step forward.

"Well! It is so, so good to finally meet you all," He tried to walk forward and shake Jay's hand. Jay, however, stopped Ben with a fist. Ben took no mind of it and outstretched a hand to Mal, who unfolded her arms long enough to reach forward and shake his hand. The moment her skin brushed his, an explosion of color and sound appeared behind her eyes. She looked up at him in surprise as thousands of emotions – trepidation, annoyance, surprise – rushed through her, just like they did when her connection was active. However, this time they were unaccompanied by the cold touch.

" _What on earth?_ " she thought.

" _Sorry_ ," someone thought back. And now that Mal had heard it before, it sounded awfully familiar.

She stared up at the prince and studied him. " _Is it you?_ " she asked through the connection as shock raced through her. Her eyes flickered back over his shoulder to where Princess Audrey – Audrey – stood waiting, warily eyeing the prolonged handshake her boyfriend was sharing with Mal. She ripped her hand away and expected the connection to fizzle out, but it didn't, which made Mal panic even more.

" _It is me_ ," he confirmed. " _I'm your soulmate._ " And she felt him examining her. She could feel how tight his chest was getting in excitement and his wonder at how "adorable" (his words!) she was for being the daughter of such a formidable villain…by the gods, she wanted to throw up.

" _Ben_?" she asked in horror - well, perhaps horror wasn't the right word, but it was pretty darn close. " _Prince freaking Ben?_ "

" _Yeah_." He had to rip his eyes off of her to move down the line. As soon as his gaze had left hers, Mal searched for a way to close the borders of her mind, but there were none. They'd vanished. She remembered they had never really opened in the first place, not the way she was used to.

Ben shook hands with Carlos. Mal got the rush of unease as he tried to avoid the chocolate on Carlos's fingers. When he reached Evie, she felt his worry as she leaned in tantalizingly towards him.

"This is a momentous occasion, one that I hope will go down in history as the day our peoples begin to heal," he proclaimed. Mal stifled the spikes of annoyance that ran through her, then cursed herself for caring that he would feel them. Let him. It was a stupid thing to say.

"Or, the day you showed four peoples where the bathrooms are," she countered. Ben's gaze fell on her as he laughed, and her skin felt like electricity, live and hot. Judging by the self-satisfaction coming from his side of the connection, Ben could feel it too.

" _Shut up!_ " she ordered in her head. She heard him chuckle without moving his lips, though the corners of his mouth crooked upwards.

" _I haven't said anything. Why are you so embarrassed?_ " he teased. Realizing his girlfriend was literally three feet away from him, however, he suddenly stopped. Then, opening his mouth, he asked in a much more subdued voice: "A little bit over the top?"

"A little more than a little bit," she confirmed to the rest of the world.

"Well, so much for my first impression.". Mal bit her tongue to stop an eye roll. She already hated him - so yes, his first impression had sucked. But when she glanced up and her eyes caught his impossibly pretty blue ones, she felt like she was falling through space…

He tilted his head to the side. " _Are we good now_?" he asked her.

She wasn't sure. Were they good? Was she okay with this?

"Hey, you're Maleficent's daughter, aren't you?" Audrey blurted out beside Ben, reaching forward to wrap her arm through his again. Spikes of anxiety invaded Mal's senses as Ben's face went pale.

"Ah - " he stammered, glancing between the two girls. " _Oh, crap, oh crap."_

" _What's going on?"_ Mal asked him.

"I just wanted to let you know that there's no bad blood between us," Audrey smiled, leaning forward a little even as she pulled Ben back. "My mom's Aurora. You know, Sleeping Beauty?"

Sleeping Beauty? Mal blinked twice and then fixed her gaze on a thoroughly-embarrassed Ben. " _You've got to be kidding me,"_ she hissed. " _Sleeping Beauty?_ _The_ _Sleeping Beauty? You had her daughter meet me here -_ _and_ _she's your girlfriend?"_

" _It didn't really occur to me…"_ he tried before the thought sputtered off. " _I'm really sor-"_

" _We're not good,"_ she decided, cutting him off. " _Get out of my head._ "

" _Mal -_ "

" _I said, get out!_ "

There was a slight pause, but his presence in her head didn't fade. " _I can't."_

" _You can't what?"_

" _I can't go away. I'm trying. You try."_

" _I am, and it wasn't working, that's why I told you to do it."_

Another pause _. "I thought we figured this out already."_

" _Guess not,"_ Mal remarked, annoyed.

" _What if we try together?"_ He suggested. " _On three?"_

Mal pursed her lips _. "Fine,"_ she grumbled.

" _One, two..."_ They both began trying to shut down their mental bridge. Mal felt herself go cross-eyed from the strain, but nothing happened. She heard him give an actual, vocalized grunt. Then, Evie started calling her name.

"Mal?" she asked. "Mal, are you okay?"

Mal snapped back to the present, casting her eyes about her group. "I'm fine," she said, then leveled her gaze with Audrey. "I… didn't know Aurora had a daughter."

"Oh, well, she does. But like I said, there's no bad blood. After all, I had the privilege of being raised by my mother, not three fairies in the woods." Audrey seemed quite satisfied with Mal's reaction. It was so irritating that she thought some goody-two-shoes princess could shake the daughter of a dragon. Mal actually had quite a few things to say, starting with, "Remember how your grandparents didn't invite my mom to that christening and started this whole feud? Do _you_ really get to decide there's no bad blood?" but admittedly, she had bigger problems.

" _Why isn't this closing?!"_

" _I don't know."_ Ben wasn't feeling quite as frantic as Mal, so she pushed some of her emotions off on him out of spite.

" _This is your fault. You wanted us to meet, and now we're sharing a brain!"_

" _It's going to be okay. Just calm down."_

Mal scowled and gave a brief nod to Audrey before she stepped right through them and began to walk down the path, through the band. They parted for her like any crowd on the Isle would. "So, what parts of this joint do we need to know about?"

"We were thinking we would start with the major classroom areas and the numbering system so you can find your classes later," Ben began, glancing at her legs as she passed by. She turned around before his gaze could creep any higher and heard him mutter a distant " _Sorry_ ," in her head. "Then we were going to swing by the lunchroom, explain the major rules, and drop you off at your dorms."

"Let's skip right to that last bit," Mal recommended.

"I figured you would say that, which is why it's last on the list," Ben raised an eyebrow. "Stay focused for the tour and you'll get there quicker, okay?"

Mal only glared. Then she glanced at her friends and jerked her head to the left. "Come on, we'll find them ourselves."

Ben raised an eyebrow. "They're not marked," he informed her.

"I love a good challenge," Mal replied. She stepped around him and her three compatriots, who looked a little confused on how she could possibly think she could find the dorms on her own, followed her. She felt Ben's mounting amusement as the Fairy Godmother leaned forward to yank on his arms. It was about two seconds before the thought passed through his mind: " _At least they're heading in the right direction. They won't be too entirely embarrassed_."

Mal fought to keep her thoughts blank. It was a struggle.

Carlos leaned up. "We don't know where we're going," he whispered. "And I want to see the cafeteria."

Mal was busy gauging Ben's thoughts while trying not to alert him to her skimming. He was still expecting them to turn around for help, so he hadn't noticed her snooping yet. " _Where would the cafeteria be?"_ She wondered and immediately, directions opened up in Ben's head.

" _Located right outside the art department, which you're already headed towards, with the dorms right beside the math hall across the lawn from the - wait..._ "

Mal could hardly hold back a smirk as she pointed ahead, slightly towards the left, and announced. "Let's go this way. I bet that's where the food will be."

"How did you know that?" Audrey asked behind Mal, surprised.

Mal spared her a glance only to give her a smug expression. "Just picked up on it," she replied.

" _Are you picking up on anything else? Exasperation, maybe?"_ Ben thought.

He then reacted to something then that Mal couldn't hear - she assumed it was the Fairy Godmother from the professional attitude he immediately summoned up. Mal ignored him, hoping the bond would soften and go away. But when they opened the doors to their dorms for the first time, she could still feel him there, an ever present spectator of her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994.


	4. Waffles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994 of Fanfiction.net.

In her dorm that evening, Mal bounced a ball off the wall and listened to Evie, Jay, and Carlos discussing the sunset outside. She'd been poking a little at her soulbond with Ben and had figured out a pretty crucial detail. Ben could only hear her conscious thoughts and little snippets of her subconscious. That meant her conversations were safe so long as she didn't ponder on them too hard.

She had also learned a few things about Ben. It was interesting - he seemed comfortable and amicable to her, but with most others, he was polite and professional. Always trying to not offend anyone… always careful of what he said. He was also a bit of a… well, politician. Surprise, surprise. But he knew how to get people to do things and not make them mad in the process. He was annoyed with Audrey at the moment and, as Mal gathered, had been for some time. Apparently, Audrey was being less than supportive about the VKs, and a general brat to everyone around her the closer Ben's coronation drew.

That was another thing. Ben's coronation was set to happen a week from today...so he was only the king in practice, not in title. Meaning, Mal suspected, Audrey was gearing up to become the king's girlfriend, not the prince's girlfriend. And to be honest, that thought irked her a little. Teens on the Isle were worried about pleasing their parents and attaining their high expectations. Teens in Auradon only worried about how important their boyfriends were.

" _What are you thinking about_?" Ben inquired, sounding a bit on-edge.

" _Nothing,"_ Mal groaned inwardly. " _Leave me alone."_

" _I heard 'boyfriend',"_ Ben explained. " _Are you talking to Evie?"_

Mal glanced over at Evie, who was kneeling on the floor with her arms on the windowsill, supporting her chin as she stared at the sunset. " _No,"_ she told Ben as a feeling of peace settled over her like a heavy blanket. " _And for the record, even though it doesn't really concern you, I was thinking about Audrey."_

" _How can my girlfriend not concern me?"_ Ben asked. "... _Are you jealous?"_ A flutter of giddiness ran through him.

" _Why would I be?_ _I'm_ _clearly_ _not missing out on anything,"_ Mal snorted, enjoying the way he deflated. " _And you're the one who panicked when I said 'boyfriend' even though you're dating someone else."_

Perhaps her tone was a little snappier than she had intended because she somehow felt him cringe despite his physical absence. " _I'm sorry, okay?"_

Mal paused at that. " _Sorry for what?_ "

" _You know what, Mal_." A fleeting thought about Audrey nearly made her scowl.

" _Yeah. Having her as part of my welcoming committee was a real jerk move._ "

" _That's not what I meant - "_

" _I know what you meant. I can read your mind,"_ she reminded him. " _You can date whoever you want. I don't care, beyond letting you know that your taste is horrific._ "

" _That's a little harsh, Mal. But I don't...entirely disagree._ " She felt Ben take a deep breath. " _I need to break up with her, and I need your help_."

She almost laughed aloud - but caught herself just in time. An illogically good mood had overtaken her, but she didn't want to alert her gang to the mental conversation she was having. Still, she shifted her weight and Jay's attention fell on her. "Why so smug?" he asked.

"Oh, I'm just thinking about _Prince Ben_ and _Princess Audrey,_ " Mal snickered. "What fools."

Of course, Ben couldn't hear that. Mal listened to him continue complaining about Audrey _."She's not a bad person, Mal. I love her, I really do, but as a friend. I think breaking up with her would devastate her. And I'm just...not good at making people sad."_

 _"But I am,"_ inferred Mal.

_"Well...yes."_

_"That's the biggest compliment you_ _could've_ _given me, you know."_

She could practically feel his eyes rolling, like that was an emotion in and of itself. _"So you'll help me?"_

 _"We'll see."_ Mal turned her attention back to her friends, letting him hang out in her head without being privy to the real-life conversation.

Jay had returned his gaze to the window. "Did your… mother tell you anything before we left the Isle?" he asked.

Mal tilted her head. "Nothing specific," she said. "Why?"

Jay's eyes flicked to the ground. "I… my dad gave me an order to break him out when I got here. I was wondering if your mom did the same."

"My mom did that too," Carlos muttered, leaning his curly hair against Evie's bedpost. Evie had taken the bed closer to the window. On the floor, the bed's owner was nodding her head.

"My mother told me to find a prince in a castle," she murmured with a dreamy smile. "A mother-in-law wing… and lots and lots of mirrors…"

Mal hummed. She tried to focus on not letting Ben into what they were talking about, despite the fact he was doing his best to eavesdrop. She shut away her emotions carefully so he couldn't decipher them and then tried to keep her forethoughts blank while also focusing on the solution. Ben grew confused, but didn't ask. "I don't know," she said aloud. "She didn't say anything to me." She couldn't afford to wonder why. Ben would hear that no matter how much she tried to cover it up.

After ten seconds of deep silence, Mal suddenly sat up and put a hand on Evie's shoulder. "We should do it. We should break them out," she suggested. It was so hard to not think about what she was saying as she said it. But Mal knew it was possible. Gil had done it all the time.

" _Are you still there_ _?"_ he asked. She didn't respond.

If there was a mental equivalent to poking someone with a stick, that was what Ben did. Mal jumped. " _Hey!"_ she snapped.

" _Sorry, but you wouldn't answer me."_

" _Go away!"_

A knock came at the door. Jay walked over and opened it. It was the Fairy Godmother, looking a tad nervous. She let out a breath of relief to see Jay with Carlos behind him, still sitting on the bed. "Hello!" She twittered. "I'm glad I found you. Well, I'm not sure anyone has told you, but boys and girls shouldn't be in rooms together behind closed doors, even if there's another pair present. I'm not sure if any of you are..." She trailed off, hoping their deductive skills would finish the sentence for her.

"No," Jay cut her off, shaking his head. "We're not. And sorry about the issue."

"Ah, well." Fairy Godmother's smile faltered. "Anyways, it is time to return to your rooms and stay there for the night. You may not have heard yet, but I have a little thing about - "

" _Curfews,"_ Ben finished glumly. She blinked as Ben pondered over being caught in the library, desperately cramming for a test well after hours, and then having to pick up litter around the school.

Jay sighed and glanced at the girls as he picked up his coat. "Sayonara, then," he called. Carlos followed suit.

"Goodnight!" Evie called as they left.

"We'll talk later," Mal yelled behind them as the door began to swing closed. Fairy Godmother barely managed to catch it with her foot. She poked her head back in.

"Ah, just to clarify," she twittered. "We have student officers and security guards who patrol the student halls at nighttime. If you get caught out, it's community service. And classes start at ten, so don't sleep in too late!"

Then the door finally shut and they were left alone again (mostly alone, if Mal ignored Ben hard enough).

"Well, I guess I won't be sneaking out to explore," Evie grumbled, climbing up onto her bed as the last of the sunset began to fade away. "Were you serious? Do you really think we could break our parents out?"

"Yeah." A very small part of her wondered if letting her mother loose on Auradon was just a disproportionate, truly diabolical revenge for Ben dating someone else, but she quickly shut that down. "Yeah, I do."

* * *

Mal woke up quite early, momentarily confused by the soft sheets and gentle sunlight streaming in through the windows. Then she remembered it all - the trip across the bridge, the meeting in the front lawn, and the opulent dorms that had awaited them. Oh, and her soulmate was - surprise! - the Crown Prince of Auradon.

She jumped out of bed and rummaged through her closet for a fresh set of clothes to wear. Fairy Godmother had said something about not being allowed in the boys' dorms, but Mal was never one to follow the rules. She'd head over there as soon as Evie was done with her makeup.

" _Morning_!" Ben greeted cheerfully as soon as this thought crossed her mind. " _Excited for your first day of class_?"

" _Whatever._ " Mal had more important things to worry about than class. She and Evie had talked well into the night and the other half of her crew needed to be updated on the finer details of the -

Crap. Crap crap crap.

" _What_ _?_ _!_ " Ben exclaimed, just as Mal walked into the boy's room. " _You're not seriously going to steal the wand, are you?_ "

" _Can't you, for_ _once_ _, just stay out of my head?"_ Mal grumbled.

" _You'll be arrested,_ " Ben protested.

Mal grit her teeth and shoved her hands into her pockets. " _Is that a threat, Beast Boy_?".

" _Don't call me that_ ," Ben told her dismissively. " _Listen, could we talk this through? Please?"_

" _I'm not listening! La-dee-da-dee-da_!" She pulled the door closed with her foot and tossed her jacket onto the bed. Auradon was so warm compared to the Isle.

Carlos was waving controllers around as he jumped back and forth in front of the television screen. Jay craned his neck to look on, occasionally giving appreciative hoots. Mal rolled her eyes as Evie chuckled and flopped down on Carlos's bed, closing her eyes against the bright lights. Ben didn't say anything as she relaxed into Carlos's pillows. All was silent for a few moments.

" _Mal, you're going to ruin your chance to live in Auradon. Yours and theirs. You know I'll have to send you back if you go through with this."_

Mal ignored him. "Evie and I did some research," she announced to the room. "The wand is kept in the Auradon National Museum. There are a force field and sirens and it's, like, five miles away."

"That's convenient," Carlos mumbled. "Just far enough that we can't slip away without someone catching on."

" _How do you expect to be able to get around me?"_ Ben continued. " _Am I just supposed to ignore you_ _while you try_ _to steal a national artifact?"_

" _So nice of you to offer. That would be great."_

"It would be great if we could find someone who would just give us the wand," Evie sighed as she studied her reflection in her compact and then pulled a lipstick tube out of her sleeve. "If only, if only."

Mal cast her thoughts to Ben, trying to gauge his reaction to this statement, but he remained silent and indignant.

"I'm starving," she announced to the room. "And we supposedly have classes soon."

"Classes?" Jay asked.

Evie held up four white sheets of paper. "Someone taped these to our doors," She announced. "My bet is on Fairy Godmother or the prince himself." She let out a dreamy sigh.

Mal's chin fell towards her collarbone in disdain and a wave of discomfort washed over her from Ben. Despite her disapproval, she almost laughed aloud. " _You know, if anyone could break you and Audrey up fast, it's Evie."_

" _Fair point, but would you want to be the one to explain to her that I'm soulmates with her best friend?"_

" _I don't want that mentioned. Ever."_

" _And anyway, I'm not exactly… looking to get with Evie in the process of breaking up with Audrey."_

Mal paused, contemplating that response. Before she could draft a proper snarky response to Ben, Evie had started talking again.

"I grabbed yours for you. We all start with Remedial Goodness together."

Mal scoffed. "Sounds like a sham no one else attends that they throw us all into for extra humiliation." She paused to see if Ben would interject, but he didn't. A dark cloud spread over her mood. How supportive.

" _You want to talk to me about being supportive when you're going to steal the Fairy Godmother's wand to destroy my country?"_

Mal fumed and tugged the zippers down on her coat. "Whatever," she announced to the room and her friends. "Let's go get food. Come on, guys."

They left. Carlos set up a simple tripwire behind the doorway on their way out. None of them knew if Fairy Godmother or someone else would be searching their rooms, but they weren't going to make it easy for them if they were. And sure, the tripwire was simple enough, but maybe it would warn an intruder that they were going to protect their turf and also leave a few marks on their uninvited visitor, thus alerting the VK's as to what sort of precautions were necessary.

When they'd first passed through the cafeteria the day before, it had been empty and nothing but fruit and power snacks had been set out. Now, it was filled with at least a hundred students. Mal scowled as a group of boys passed by, all dressed in matching uniforms. Jay blinked as they passed and focused on the numbers and insignia, but Mal only craned to see around them. She was too short to see farther into the crowd.

" _You're near the breakfast parfait line. Waffles are another option."_

" _Waffles?"_

"What are waffles?" Evie wondered aloud beside Mal, and Mal almost jumped out of her skin. But Evie was peering over the heads of students sitting down and had spotted the sign all on her own.

"Should we find out?" Mal asked Evie, Jay, and Carlos underneath her breath.

Carlos was the only one to give a noncommittal shrug of acceptance, and so they all began to head over towards the waffle line. Some people parted ways and stared as they passed, but overall, they blended right into the rest of the student body.

" _You look good,"_ Ben complimented her. " _Did Evie make that?"_

Mal let out a little breath. She couldn't tell where Ben was and didn't want to look around for him and clue her friends into anything, but she could somehow tell where he was looking by what he noticed. The green patch of textured fabric on her left shoulder surrounded by sequins, the ripped edges of her jacket that somehow resembled a dragon's talons, and the neon green pants she was wearing. " _Evie makes all my clothes,"_ she reminded him as he went into a short trance while staring at her ankles.

" _Of course,"_ Ben agreed. " _She does good work. It probably won't be long before everyone here wants her help."_

" _She costs."_ Mal paused. She'd only seen Ben in suits and slacks so far but imagined what he would look like if Evie picked out his wardrobe. A mutilated white t-shirt… combat boots… a dark blue leather jacket…

" _A beanie."_

" _What?"_

" _A beanie! Like Jay's, but maybe bright blue! Oh, that would be so fun! Do you think she would do it for me if I asked? Maybe I could strike a deal with her where if I get you into a dress-"_

" _Excuse you?"_

" _You'd look so good."_ And he started describing his own image to her. " _Because you always turn on your heel, so you'd made the skirt flare out, and you could wear those same booties and-"_

" _Everyone here would stare at my legs."_

Ben's entire expression fell then and he brushed all his ideas away with disgust. Mal almost laughed. " _Would that be a problem?" she teased._

" _Whatever,"_ he replied in the snippiest tone Mal had ever heard him take.

They took a few steps forward in line. The other three were too busy looking around to notice that Mal had tuned out. "Look," Evie whispered in a hushed breath and nodded to the left. "It's Prince Ben."

Mal flicked her eyes towards where Evie was making cow eyes and almost immediately spotted Ben… sitting beside Princess Audrey and a blonde-haired boy with thick, wavy locks.

"Who's that beside him?" Evie whispered in Mal's ear.

" _Chad."_ Ben supplied in her head. " _Don't try your luck with him. He's a player."_

"Looks like bad news," Mal said aloud as they got into the line for waffles. Part of her wanted to cut in front of everyone, but the other part was too tired of Ben's reprimands to give him fodder for another one.

"Every boy looks like bad news to you," Evie huffed and crossed her arms. Mal scowled when Ben's expression turned smug and rolled her eyes.

Carlos leaned past Mal and tapped the person in line in front of them. It was a dark-haired girl with a pale blue dress and a glittery hairpiece. Tiny pink bows dangled from her ears, reminding Mal a lot of -

"Relax, we're not going to bite," Carlos said by way of introduction. "Can you tell us how this works?"

The girl blinked and sized them all up. She looked terrified, which somehow made Mal like her a lot more. "Eh - um - we - " she stammered and swallowed. Behind her, Ben started rubbing his forehead as if he had a headache, but Mal didn't take much notice. "You, uh, just pick a line and they hand you a tray and you, um…" The girl rolled her hand a little. "You get food."

"You don't have to pay?" Carlos asked. Mal began to feel a little uncomfortable as he began to lean a little closer to Jane and took a half-step to the right to get out of their conversation.

"Uh, no, but they ask for your Student ID. My mom pays for school lunch with my tuition, but, uh, I don't know about you guys. I bet Ben probably has it figured out. He's over there." The dark-haired girl turned and pointed over her shoulder toward Ben, Audrey, and Chad.

"Our student ID's are here," Evie announced, producing the four sheets of white paper with their schedules. "Should we ask Ben if they'll work?"

"You can if you want," Mal nodded towards the three teens at the end of the table. Evie perked up and took a step forward before Mal kept talking. "Feel free to go talk to the future King of Auradon while he's sitting across the table from her nastiness, _Princess_ Audrey." She gave a false curtsey as Evie wrinkled her nose up and decided that talking with Ben wasn't worth having to deal with Audrey's presence.

Mal snorted, taking her schedule and shaking her head at the list. It was surprisingly… tailored. Six classes a day and different classes from Day A to Day B. Today, she started with Remedial Goodness, but then there was Faery History, Magic Sciences, a seemingly normal math and English class, and then an etiquette class that she immediately determined she'd be skipping. Still, that was only two bad classes. She almost smiled to see the blank hour first thing tomorrow morning. Ben had given her an opportunity to sleep in before she had to endure Safety Rules of the Internet and History of Pirates, but then there was pottery, which she hadn't even known could be taught in a normal school. The last two hours were blocked out without a class title, only a room number and the word "Aide".

She glanced up. Carlos had his schedule and was standing beside the new girl as the line shuffled forward. She had her finger down on a line on his paper and was saying: "This means you go out to the field during this hour, though I'd try and check the locker rooms first. They're over on - "

"Hey," Mal interrupted and the girl's eyes snapped up as fear re-entered her gaze. She held out her paper. "What's an aide?"

"An aide?" She blinked and furrowed her brow. "They put you down as an aide?"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Mal drawled. The girl shrank back in increased fear, but Carlos set a hand in between her shoulder blades to keep her from leaning into the next person in line.

"Jane didn't mean it like that," Carlos said.

"No!" Jane agreed. "I just… didn't expect you to have been booked as a teacher's aide before you knew the place and felt, well, comfortable around here."

"A teacher's aide?" Mal wrinkled up her nose. "What teacher?"

Jane swallowed and leaned forward. "Um... Room 109… Mr. Bisser is the Art Teacher. He's really laid-back - you'll like him. I think those last two hours are usually for his advanced class."

Mal felt her eyes light up a little in surprise and a bit of excitement. Ben had booked her for two and a half hours of art without actually having to be part of a class. How nice of him.

Said Prince of Auradon glanced over his shoulder in the corner of Mal's vision. He'd been mostly ignored while she'd been learning everything, but had still been examining her reactions. Now, a sort of questioning expression was coming from his end of the connection. " _Did I make up for snatching you from the Isle?"_ he asked.

Hmm. Comfy bed, good food, and fun classes. All so he could hopefully marry her.

" _No. Not the intention."_

" _It is totally your intention, you liar."_

"Oh, you guys get my mom for your first hour," Jane said and Mal's attention snapped back to the dark-haired girl at Carlos's side.

"Who's your mom?' she asked, glancing down at her schedule in confusion. It had to be someone really "good" to be teaching a class for -

"Fairy Godmother," Jane blushed a little. "Y'know, the Headmistress."

"Fairy Godmother?" Mal repeated. She drew a mental line between Jane and the wand. Would Fairy Godmother's daughter have any sway over getting her mother to break out her wand again?

"Where do we find her class?" Carlos asked, furrowing his brow at his schedule. "It says… Room 229…"

"I can show you," Jane volunteered dismissively. She pointed to the room numbers and her finger landed dangerously close to Carlos's. "See, if they end in odd numbers, they're on the left side of the hallways. Even numbers are on the right. The first numbers are for the building they're in - there's only three plus the field and the cafeteria. And then the-"

"So, what else does your mom teach?" Mal asked. "Like this class here, Faery History, is that her domain?"

"No, mom doesn't teach," Jane shook her head. "This is a special case. She and Prince Ben want to make the transition to Auradon as smooth as possible."

Jay leaned past Evie and Mal before Mal could open her mouth to ask about the wand. "So," he began, "What's Prince Ben's deal? Why'd he want us over here?"

Carlos and Evie both zeroed in on Jane for answers and the poor girl flushed under their gazes. "Well, um, I don't know," she shrugged. "To be honest, it's all been a little sudden on us all."

"What do you mean?" Evie asked. How long has this all been a plan?"

"Since last week or… well, maybe the week before." Jane held up her fingers to begin counting on them. "I think it was a Thursday. He had to leave one of our classes early for a crown fitting and the entire thing was announced that night. I hadn't heard anything about it before then, but maybe he's had it as a goal for a long time."

"Somehow I doubt that," Evie pursed her lips. "But… that's sudden. Why the sudden interest in us? Why so fast?"

"You could always ask him," Jane shrugged. "He's pretty approachable. But, yeah, it was fast. Ben's big fight has always been about child abuse though. He's doing a bit of a whip-around by starting off his reign trying to bring Island kids over."

"Child abuse?" Mal echoed.

" _Leave it alone, Mal,"_ Ben reprimanded in her head. It occurred to her that the line had moved so far forward that this entire conversation was now happening behind Ben and Chad's heads. Audrey was glaring slits at them.

"Yeah," Jane agreed. "He's been outspoken about it for years. I remember - " She turned and caught the sleeve of a taller girl with brown hair who had just gotten out of line and was carrying a tray or food. "Lonnie? Who was it that Ben yelled at in the courts for child abuse a few years back?"

"Ben." Mal deadpanned. "Yelling?"

Lonnie paused and looked at the ceiling to think. "I believe it was… Geesh, I don't know, but he got mad. It was a big fiasco because he doesn't usually get mad, but no one was kicked out of the courts for it so I guess it must have just been someone visiting the courts."

"Yeah, anyways," Jane turned back to the group, focusing mainly on Carlos, and continued talking. "Ben's big political thing was always about fighting abuse and discrimination and he even had a few animal protection things he had going as a teen. But lately, he's been digging into everything about the Isle of the Lost, which is why you're here."

"Well, I guess if you want to stop child abuse, you can go big or go home," Carlos muttered. "Almost everyone on the Isle has been beaten or kicked out at some point."

Jane froze and her eyes became these big, brown spheres. "Oh, that's horrible," she whispered. Then the line moved forward and she was forced to focus on picking up a tray and gathering food.

Mal chewed on her lip as she followed her friends down the line. She didn't listen to Jane explaining any of the foods and instead grabbed whatever Evie grabbed and kept her head down, lost in thought.

Had it been a Thursday that day when she'd opened their connection and learned that he wasn't an islander?

" _Yes,"_ Ben replied softly.

" _And you changed your entire career because of what you learned?"_

" _It was only a matter of time before I set my sights out there. I just… looked a little faster, I guess."_

" _Why child abuse?"_

Dozens of little snippets of thought flit past her head. Mostly things they'd said to each other over the years. They filled her head like whispers.

" _Why are you always hungry?" "Your mother doesn't hit you?' "I don't want to be weak." "Are you hurt?"_

He didn't quote any of those, though. He simply said: " _Because it's not right."_

And that was it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994 of Fanfiction.net.


	5. Math Songs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994 of Fanfiction.net.

"I got Jane's number," Carlos announced as they left the cafeteria. "Now I've got to figure out how to use it."

"Here's a phone," Jay said, producing a sleek silver screen from his jacket sleeve. "Got it off of Prince Ben's blonde friend. Looked like he could afford to lose an item or two."

"Sweet. So I just erase it, make it my own, and then I can text her," Carlos said, taking the phone from Jay.

"That's a good idea," Mal announced as they rounded the corner. "Jane might be able to get us to Fairy Godmother's wand. Just Like Evie said. Someone to hand it right to us."

Jay shrugged. "What do you have in mind?" he asked.

"I bet old FG will break out the old wand if her daughter is in enough distress," Mal reasoned. "If we try and - "

"No," Carlos interrupted firmly.

"No?" Mal repeated.

"We're not going to bring Jane into this," Carlos told her firmly, stopping in the center of the hallway. Mal stopped too and turned to face him with her eyes turning into dangerous slits.

"Oh, let's see you call the shots," Mal sneered. "What, you've got a girlfriend and now you've got to spare her precious little feelings?"

"Yeah. Problem?" Carlos stepped in closer and Mal blinked. Exactly how much had she missed? She doubted Carlos and Jane were actually an item so much as Carlos was interested in her, but still.

"What?" Mal asked.

"Did I stutter?" Carlos challenged.

"Guys," Evie put a hand on their shoulders. "Cool off. I agree with Carlos. Jane can be a last resort. Besides, I don't think Fairy Godmother has the power to remove her wand without higher authority. The person we should be looking at… is Ben."

"Oh, great," Mal groaned. "Not you too. Guys, we're here to get the wand, not fraternize."

"Come on, it'll be fun!" Evie's eyes took on a dreamy, far-away look. "And just imagine… the King of Auradon!"

* * *

While most of Remedial Goodness was spent complaining to Ben about the course and arguing about her ongoing plans, Mal's two following classes were interesting enough to keep her from interrupting Ben's classes. However, then came math.

The teacher beelined straight towards her the moment she stepped in and Mal almost stepped right back out to see if he'd hit reverse just as quickly. "Miss Mal," He called when he was a few feet away before he was suddenly towering over her with a stapled packet of five papers in his hand. "Due to a mix-up in trying to get your Isle classes over here, we're going to have you spend your first day here pre-testing to see where you fall. This won't affect your grade and will determine whether we'll work with you individually or allow you to follow along with the class or even whether you'll require a more advanced class."

"What?" Mal asked. He'd said it all so fast she had to make sure she'd heard right. But he directed her to sit at a desk in the back of the room without further explanation and set the test down.

"Take all the time you need and please, don't cheat. This is just a measurement of your skills so we know how to help you."

The rest of the class filed in, sparing her cautious and curious glances, and class began without anyone else directly acknowledging her. Mal found a pencil in her back and peered down at the paper, still in a confused daze. That only worsened when she found what appeared to be a map of foreign squiggles and dots.

Wasn't math supposed to be with numbers?

" _I have no idea what's going on,"_ She thought and felt Ben hum on the other end of her connection. " _How do I do this_?"

" _I'm sorry, but I can't help you,_ " he said, sounding a tad regretful.

Mal narrowed her eyes. That wasn't fair. The Isle's school system wasn't anything near Auradon's and now she was being thrown in among students who'd had this stuff their entire lives. And it was his fault. He should at least try and help her.

" _That's cheating,"_

" _We share a brain. If you know it, I know it."_

" _Not how it works."_

" _Ben…"_

" _I'm sorry, Mal."_

Mal sighed and glared at the paper. There was a triangle… some sort of number beside it… why were there letters?

Like the heavens opening, Ben's mind immediately jumped to the right conclusion and re-diagrammed the problem for her. He panicked a little and tried to distract himself, but Mal was easily able to figure out the last few steps and complete what he'd done.

The second problem wasn't too different from the first and so she was able to just copy the steps Ben had taken the first time, but then the third one had a rectangle instead of a triangle and so she turned her thoughts back to him.

" _I can't help you on this!"_

" _How do you find where the letter goes? Come on, I know you know how."_ And he did - the formula for it appeared in his head and Mal scribbled it down before he could cast it away. Now she just needed to figure out what went where. More information appeared in his head, much to his annoyance, and she had to keep from smirking as she kept going. It was like she was grabbing the answers right out of thin air. Perks of having a smart soulmate, she supposed.

" _Come on, you're not really giving that much away. I'm still doing some of the work."_

" _You're supposed to be doing all of the work."_

" _But it's so much easier to ask you when you're so smart and know it right away."_ She laughed as he accidentally fed her another answer and pictured his growl of frustration. He'd been part of the advanced class… all of this was trivial to him.

She got halfway through the test when he finally picked up a strategy against her. She was sorting through multiplying different numbers when she heard him start thinking of a tapping sound, over and over… it was somewhat rhythmic.

" _What are you doing?"_ She asked.

Ben kept tapping, adding in a few other sounds, and Mal found it increasingly hard to focus. Her own foot was bouncing to the rhythm he'd started. When she finished the problem, found the next one confusing, and tried to present it up to Ben for help, he began singing to go along with the tapping.

" _It's a small world after all… It's a small world after all… It's a world of laughter, a world of tears. A world of hopes and a world of fears…"_

" _What are you saying? Have you lost your mind?"_

" _There's so much that we share, that it's time we're aware, it's a small world after all…"_

Oh god, she was going to go insane.

" _Quit it!"_

She ended up not finishing the second half of the test, which was probably a good thing in hindsight. If she'd been too good, they might have bumped her up to a more advanced class. She already didn't understand what purpose the letters served, and she wasn't ready for interpretive dance or whatever the next level of math called for. When she handed the packet in to the teacher, she should've been amused at his confusion - why had she gotten half the questions 100% right, and left the others blank? Ben was being difficult, though, and continued playing that cursed song in his head to torment her further.

It was only later she realized it was a pretty good defense against their sharing thoughts.

* * *

" _You busy right now?"_

" _Why?"_ Mal asked, frowning down at the picture she was drawing.

" _Audrey just sat down at a table up here. It's probably the only time she'll be alone for the next day or so."_

" _So?"_

" _So will you please come out and help me break up with her?"_

" _What do you want me to do? Hold your hand and pat your back?_

" _Doesn't sound like a horrible idea but I was more just hoping you could… provide emotional support?"_

" _Because I'm so good at that."_

" _Also because you know how to be firm and I was hoping I could draw on your strength."_

" _Geesh Ben. I think you need to grow a pair and break up with your own girlfriend. Besides, isn't it presumptuous to have the daughter of Maleficent there while you break up with the daughter of Sleeping Beauty?"_

" _Maaal…"_

" _Fine."_ She snapped her sketchpad closed and got to her feet. " _Are you still over by the tourney field?"_

" _Memorizing my schedule now, are we?"_ His tone was teasing, but there was just enough of a serious question behind it to make her annoyed.

" _Shut up, Ben. You literally pulled Jay and Carlos away with you after school and I've heard you huffing for the last twenty minutes. By the way, exhale on alternate feet and then you won't get side cramps as bad."_ To Evie, she nodded and said: "I'm going to go see if the boys are out."

"I might leave soon," Evie hummed. "Chad Charming wanted to meet me underneath the bleachers after practice."

A wave of disgust ran through her - both her and Ben feeling the same thing, for once - and she shuddered. " _Warn her,"_ Ben pleaded.

"Evie, he's trouble," Mal said. "I heard some people talking about him. He's a player."

"Mal, you just need to grow up and accept that dating isn't evil." Evie rolled her eyes and Mal grit her teeth.

"Fine," Mal sighed. She went to the door and made sure to snap it closed behind her.

She found Ben standing underneath the shade of a tree and carefully staying out of sight of his girlfriend, who was sitting at a park bench about twenty paces away. She came to stand beside him with a sigh. "Are you ready?" she asked him.

Ben straightened his suit jacket and nodded before changing his mind and shaking his head. "No. Not at all."

"Don't be such a coward."

"I'm not a coward, Mal! I just…I'm worried about hurting her feelings." His gaze implored her to understand. She didn't.

"Sounds kinda cowardly to me. But call it what you want."

Ben sighed and stepped out into the sunlight. He headed towards Audrey and, after a moment of deliberation, Mal followed. Audrey, who was slipping books back into her neatly organized bookbag, glanced up as they approached. "Hey, Audrey – " Ben started.

Upon seeing Mal, however, Audrey grabbed Ben's arm and pulled him towards her. The suspicion from their very first meeting clearly hadn't gone away, judging by the way her eyes darted between the two of them. "Look, Mal, I don't know how it is on the Isle." She wrinkled her nose. "But here, we don't run around with other people's boyfriends."

Mal's eyebrows rose. "Good thing he isn't anyone's boyfriend, then."

" _Mal…_ " Ben's voice warned in her head.

"Are you blind?" Audrey wrapped her hands further around his arm like a boa constrictor, and Ben winced. "He's my boyfriend. Tell her, Ben!"

"Not anymore. He doesn't like prissy princesses like you, Audrey. Tell her, Ben!" Mal felt rather triumphant at handling this so quickly, but she'd counted her chickens before they'd hatched.

"What – no! I like prissy – ah, I like you, Audrey. Of course, I do. Don't be mean, Mal." Ben glanced at her and then smiled down at Audrey.

"Are you kidding me right now?" Mal snapped at him.

" _It was too harsh, Mal_."

" _It was exactly what you asked me to do_!"

" _No, I asked you to help me break up with her, not go scorched earth_."

Audrey was taking Mal's blank stare as a victory. "Please stay away from _my_ boyfriend in the future, Mal. I'm sure you have other…evil little things to do."

Mal scowled. "Whatever. Enjoy your alone time."

Just to rub salt in the wound, Audrey stretched up on her tip-toes and gave Ben an obnoxiously loud kiss on the cheek. Mal turned around to walk away, but Ben had already felt the flare of jealousy.

" _Don't be mad, Mal."_

" _I'm not mad. I've never been less mad. I'm great and not humiliated at all."_

" _I messed this up, I know. But we'll come up with a better way. Okay?"_

" _Whatever."_

" _I'm going to hug Audrey now. But I'm going to pretend it's you."_

She didn't have the foggiest idea how to respond to that.

* * *

"I have news," Jay announced. "Apparently, students get free access to public transportation and we also get free access to Auradon's Historical and Cultural sites."

"Convenient," Evie exclaimed. "Oh, Chad Charming told me that they use Fairy Godmother's wand at coronation to bless Prince Ben. I bet if I could get close enough to him during it, I could grab it."

" _No. The only people up front are me, my folks, and my girlfriend."_

" _Your girlfriend? Really? Stop dropping hints."_

" _I didn't say anything."_

" _You're having me help you break up with Audrey."_

" _Who knows, maybe it'll just be me and mom and dad."_

" _You're supposed to say '_ my _mom and dad'."_

" _Left it out on purpose. My parents have adopted you."_

" _You cannot bribe me into marrying you with your parents."_

" _Mal,_ _I'm not - that's not what I meant_ _! Don't you guys have things like that on the Isle? Where your parents act like your friend's parents too? That's what I meant. They heard you have issues at home and decided that whenever you showed up, they'd treat you like we were siblings."_

" _With that logic, wouldn't I automatically be up front with you?"_

" _If you want to be up front, say the words and it's done. And by that, I mean you've gotta admit to your friends and my parents that you do actually have a soulmate."_

Mal wrinkled up her nose. Fat chance.

Ben hesitated. " _Are you really going to ruin my coronation?"_

Mal hummed. " _Probably not."_ She was mad at Ben, but not mad enough to humiliate him like that… yet.

" _Thanks."_

" _It'd be too hard anyways. Too many people and too much security. If Elsa attends, she'll freeze us solid before anything else happens."_

"You know," Mal hummed, tilting her head at her friends as if she were contemplating the idea. "I'd rather not steal the wand in front of the likes of Elsa, Moana, the three good fairies, Hercules, Merlin, the Enchantress and-"

"Okay, I get it," Evie agreed, looking a little disappointed. "You're right."

"Well, that doesn't really matter if we just go pick it up now," Jay shrugged. "There's a new bus every hour. If we leave now, we'll have the wand in fifteen minutes."

Mal hummed. "How long?" she asked. Ben began his usual protests on his end of the connection.

"Bus comes in ten," Jay replied. "Are we doing this? Or no?"

"Let's go." Mal got to her feet. Everyone else sprang up too. Carlos grabbed a bag to hold things in while Jay tucked a few small weapons up inside the bindings on his wrists while Mal moved to the door and opened it.

" _Mal, if you get caught, it's game over. I can't help you if you get caught."_

" _Easy solution - let's not get caught."_

" _And then what? You murder me, destroy everything I love, and then continue to get kicked around by your mother?"_

Mal stopped in the hallway and glared straight ahead of her. Her friends were finishing grabbing their things in the room. She could feel her eyes lighting up as she took several slow breaths.

" _That was a low blow, Ben. Way below the belt."_

" _Think it through. You stand to lose a lot more than you could gain."_

" _How dare you."_

" _How dare I? You - "_

" _Your mother loved you, Ben."_

He went quiet. Then he started feeling guilty, and that was almost worse than the silence of him wishing he could take back what he'd said and rephrase it differently.

" _You don't have to spend the rest of your life trying to get your mother to - "_

" _Isn't that what all kids do? What you do with your mom? Don't think I don't know about how loving and wonderful Belle has been to you all these years."_

" _I just don't want you to get hurt."_

" _You are hurting me. Just like your parents, who left me there."_

" _And now you'll send yourself back?"_

" _No. It'll be different this time. Once I've done this, she'll love me just like your mom loves you."_

" _You don't earn love, Mal. If you could just see… she's toxic. Look, stay here in Auradon. Build something for yourself where you don't have to spend every moment looking over your shoulder. Help me make the Isle better. Stay with me. I'm serious when I say my parents will adore you just as much as I-"_

" _Shut up, Ben!"_ The sheer volume of her voice startled them both. Several seconds of silence passed. She tried to calm down. " _I need you to stop. Don't talk to me about my mother."_

Evie opened the door ahead of Mal. "Ready?" she asked. Mal nodded but didn't move. She kept silent as Carlos finished tightening his shoes, waiting to see if Ben had anything else he wanted to add.

He didn't, it seemed. He'd gone completely quiet. She could feel him there, but he had nothing to say or think, apparently.

"Let's go."

No one paid them any more attention than normal as they trekked down from the dorms, away from the school, and out to the bus stop. Only three other kids were waiting there. One was an older girl with a baby carrier who was holding a bus pass - she must have just been visiting the campus. The other two were boys wearing plaid shirts, ties, and glasses. One boy with sandy blonde hair looked up when Evie pulled out her mirror to discreetly check which stop they should get off at. He jumped, and at first Mal thought it was because he was one of the people afraid of them, but then she saw him loosen his tie and take a deep breath and realized what this really was.

"Hey Evie," he said, closing the book he'd been showing the other boy. "Where are you headed?"

Evie turned. She smiled at them both and gave a little half-lidded nod. "Doug," she greeted. "I didn't see you, sorry."

"No problem." Doug's voice had gotten a little higher. Mal rolled her eyes and glanced at the timer that told how far out the next bus was. Only a minute and thirty seconds left. Where would Doug be going? Would she have to put up with this for the next ten minutes?

"Where are you heading to?" Doug asked again.

"Oh, we're going exploring a little," Evie replied. "We heard that the Cultural Museum is open and it has some of Auradon's old relics. We've grown up hearing about some of the stuff in there."

"Oh, that's a great place," Doug agreed. "I think your mom's basket of apples is in there, along with Jafar's lamp, Maleficent's Spinning Wheel-"

"What?" Mal asked, turning around. "I thought… I thought that was just an illusion my mom conjured to knock Aurora out. It's real?"

"Yeah," Doug smiled at her. He didn't seem put-off at all by the fact he was talking to Maleficent's daughter. "There's no magic in it at all - Maleficent only spelled it for Aurora's sixteenth - but it's there. Two things you won't find of your mother's are her spellbook and her scepter. They never recovered the spellbook from her castle in the forbidden mountains and the scepter was allowed to stay with her on the Isle. You probably already knew that, though."

Mal nodded. She'd grown up seeing the scepter. It was set in the living room by the window. But the scepter… cool.

"And the lamp?" Jay asked. "They just leave stuff like that out?"

"Technically, the genie isn't tied to the lamp anymore," Doug explained. "It's just a regular old lamp, though he can still go inside if he wants. His daughter Jordan has a lamp if you're interested in visiting her, but she only grants wishes if she wants to."

Noted. "What else is in there?" Mal asked. "You'd think it would be a huge security problem to leave all this important stuff out."

"Well, the powerful and really important things are under lock and key, and there are lots of guards. Like Jafar's magical hourglass, Dr. Facilier's old voodoo items, the cauldron of life, Maui's fish hook, and Fairy Godmother's wand." There was a screeching sound from behind them as the bus pulled in. Doug leaned down to put his book into his bag. He and his friend took a few steps forward to be closer to the entrance, though they kept some space to let the woman with her baby slip past them as the doors opened. Doug continued talking. "Right now, they're shifting things around at the museum though. Since Ben is being coronated, there won't be a queen in the palace, and that means the Queen's crown is being taken from Belle to be kept there until Ben gets married."

Ben stirred on the other end of the line at the mention of his name, but still didn't say anything. Mal continued to ignore him. "Will the Fairy Godmother's wand still be available to look at?" she asked. "I always wanted to see it when I was growing up."

"Should be," Doug agreed. "It's one of their main attractions." He held out a hand to help Evie up onto the bus. She took it with a smile. When Doug offered his hand to Mal though, she grimaced and ignored it. He didn't seem too put off as Jay and Carlos climbed on after the girls. He and his friend hopped on and the driver reached to close the doors when-

"Hold the doors!" someone called, rushing down the school's walkway toward the bus with a large and fluffy something in her arms. Doug flung a hand out to block the doors from closing and a girl with long, straight black hair climbed on, huffing. "Thanks," she gasped.

"No problem," Doug agreed. The girl slipped past him, found an empty seat just behind the driver, and plopped down with a sigh, holding up a student ID to the chuckling driver as she huffed for breath. Mal felt Carlos stiffen beside her and turned to see what was the matter. He was turning a bright shade of yellow and his eyes were growing larger by the second.

"Why do you have that here?" Jay asked, taking a little step in front of Carlos. "Aren't they dangerous?"

A few other passengers glanced over, confused. It was then that Mal realized that something in the girl's arms was a dog. She jumped back a little - weren't these pack animals that would surround you and kill on sight?

"Can you guys please find a standing or sitting space?" The driver asked, shutting the doors. "I need to be able to see through you guys to drive."

"Come on," Doug motioned and then stepped through them all. He and his friend took hold of blue straps hanging from the ceilings. "You can either sit or stand. And dogs are fine to be on the buses. Are any of you allergic?"

"Allergic?" Mal repeated. "But… they're pack animals."

"What?" The girl with the dog looked extremely confused. "No, I think you're thinking of wolves. This is Dude - he's the campus mutt. I'm taking him in to get groomed today. Have you met him?"

" _He's safe,"_ Ben confirmed. He broke into the conversation so easily that Mal forgot to be annoyed. " _You can pet him - he likes his right ear to be scratched."_

Mal slowly took a seat across from the girl with Dude, which helped Evie, Jay, and Carlos to also begin to calm down and take their seats, and then cautiously stretched forth a hand to touch Dude. The moment he saw her hand, though, he crept forward and butted his head against her fingers. Mal didn't even have time to withdraw her hand, though Carlos took a sharp breath beside her.

"See?" the girl laughed. "He's friendly!" She leaned back into her chair as Evie and Jay began to relax. "I had to run and get him from the Tourney Coach, who's had him since the beginning of this year. He usually hangs out with the students."

"He doesn't look like a vicious pack animal," Carlos muttered under his breath.

" _Scratch him under his head - he likes that too,"_ Ben advised. " _You'll all be friends in no time."_

" _I don't think that's really my thing."_ Mal took her hand back and elbowed Carlos. "You can scratch him," she whispered. "It's okay." Carlos looked terrified, but he slowly put his hand forward to let Dude sniff it.

"I didn't know the Queen's crown would be kept in the museum," Evie said behind Mal. She'd scooted down to continue talking to Doug and his friend, who had pulled out another book and was now ignoring the world as the bus began to pull out. "I assumed Belle would keep it until Ben needed it."

"It's actually not her crown," Doug shook his head. "It belongs to Auradon as a national treasure. They forged it when the country was established, along with the King's crown. Her crown - the one she got when she married Adam - is kept in their royal treasury and she'll probably start wearing it more once she loses her Auradon crown."

"So there's two," Evie nodded. "That's interesting."

"Yeah, it's a peculiar balance," Doug agreed. "You see, the kingdom of Villeneuve will keep Belle and Adam as their King and Queen - it's only the throne of Auradon that is being moved to Ben. And his kids will get the throne after sixteen as well unless Auradon calls for re-election. But Ben will only become King of Villeneuve and Conques after his parents die."

" _Your life is a mess,"_ Mal told Ben.

" _I think the fact I'm in line for two thrones is pretty minuscule when compared to how my soulmate is stealing a national artifact to destroy both of said kingdoms."_

" _Are you going to try to stop us?"_

" _Maybe if you make it past security."_

Mal snorted. Carlos made a cooing sound beside her, and she turned to watch as Dude licked the tips of his fingers. Dude's overseer had fallen asleep, so Dude had scooted over to sit in between Carlos's legs. He leaned up to lick his cheek, and Mal couldn't stop a tiny smile.

"Will you be going to the museum?" Evie asked. "Or where are you heading?"

"Auradon Public Library," Doug explained, gesturing to his friend. "But maybe we'll see you on the return trip?"

"Yeah," Evie agreed. "That would be nice."

She settled back in her chair, looking content, and Mal chuckled a little before she leaned back and whispered in Evie's ear: "He's much better than Chad Charming."

" _True,"_ Ben agreed with a sigh. " _Doug's a good egg."_

"He's nice," Evie whispered back, turning so Doug couldn't hear her murmuring. "He's in my chemistry class and helped me out on our project today." She ran her fingers through her hair with a smile. "See, Mal, not all boys are bad. I bet that if we found the right one for you, you'd actually enjoy having a boyfriend."

" _Huh. Imagine that."_

Mal snorted. "Sure," she agreed.

"Just you wait," Evie declared. "One day you're going to fall so hard for someone, you won't even notice until it's too late."

" _Fat chance,"_ Mal thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994 of Fanfiction.net.


	6. Sleepless Interruptions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994.

**This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994.**

" _You've been quiet."_

" _Not a lot to say."_

" _Just checking to make sure you're not dead."_

" _No, but I'm beginning to wonder if that would be preferable to being a bystander to my own doom."_

Mal scowled. The bus had dropped them off on the front steps of the Auradon Cultural Museum and they were now waiting in line behind a long line of parents who were taking their middle-schoolers to the museum for book reports and school projects. Evie was fixing her eyebrows behind Mal while Jay and Carlos rammed shoulders and wrestled. And Mal was bored. She'd thought that poking jokes at Ben would be fun, but he sounded dead and sad and exhausted, which only made her feel more and more… uncomfortable.

" _Guilty."_

" _I am not feeling guilty, you Smurf."_

He didn't reply to the jibe. Not even a giggle. Mal crossed her head and scuffed her shoes.

Evie grabbed the back of Mal's head and pulled her head up. "Doesn't that hurt?" she asked. "Your neck will kill later."

Mal hadn't realized she'd been sulking so hard.

"You okay?" Carlos asked, sticking a palm in Jay's face to pause their wrestle.

"Fine," Mal growled.

They finally made it to the doors and were welcomed by a whoosh of cool air. It was called air conditioning in Auradon, though Mal had grown up referring to it as "sweet relief", "magic", or, less majestic, "a draft". Evie hummed a little tune of approval and tucked her mirror away. The guard standing beside the door nodded his head to the few short notes and handed her a map of the building.

"Where's the wand?" Carlos asked as soon as they'd made it out of earshot of the guard. Evie snapped the folded map out and the other three began to examine it, matching up numbers with the directions and labels at the bottom.

"That way!" Jay hissed.

"No, that way!"

"Actually, I think it's-"

"There's a sign," Mal announced, pointing to the wall behind them. "It says it's through this hall. Come on."

The first room had been small, but Mal didn't think she'd ever been in a room as big as the next one. It… towered. Taller than Auradon Prep, even. She turned in a circle, staring at the tall, wide white trim, the bright and soft paint, and the large windows. " _This place is huge."_

" _How would you feel if I told you the entrance hall of our castle is taller by twenty feet?"_

Twenty feet? Mal tried to add on the height in her head, but the ceiling was so high she couldn't even gauge distance anymore. " _You build such… tall things here."_

" _I'll take you to the castle, if you want?"_

But that invitation implied so much… Mal didn't even stop to dwell on it. Evie pointed to another sign with a sticker of the wand on the wall, and they all began to weave their way through the crowds of people towards the Hall of Heroes.

" _Honestly, the "Hall of Heroes" basically sums up what I thought of Auradon growing up,"_ Mal admitted as they wandered into a smaller hallway with vibrant blue paint. Dozens of paintings and tapestries lined the walls. Mal skimmed colorful mermaids, strange and beautiful people, and renditions of heroic moments.

"There's Cinderella," Jay muttered under his breath as they walked. He rolled his eyes. "And Snow White. Now riddle me this - what did Snow White do in her fairytale besides clean and then get poisoned?"

"All Aurora did was fall asleep," Mal agreed. "And Cinderella cleaned and lost her shoe."

"Cinderella was also clever enough to hide the other shoe and she was regarded as clever and kind," Evie interjected. "And most of what happened to Aurora is glazed over in her own fairy tale because the story is told by her parents and townspeople. Aurora was never asked what her side of the story was."

"What's your argument for Snow White?" Jay asked, and Evie fell silent with pinched lips.

" _Technically, she did survive in the woods all alone and when she realized she couldn't go back tried to make a house for herself, but okay."_

"I don't know half of these people," Carlos said, skimming the portraits as they passed. "And some of these don't make sense. I mean… what's this underwater city here?"

"Atlantis," Evie supplied, but Mal couldn't help but agree with Carlos. Either most of these heroes weren't talked about, or the Isle was less adept at teaching about the heroes than it claimed to be.

" _Third on your right is one you'll like."_

Against her will, Mal paused. The portrait was darker, with dull colors and low lighting. It featured a girl shielded in a purple cloak, pulling a sword out of the folds. Evie, Jay, and Carlos also stopped to see it.

"Who's this?" Carlos muttered under his breath.

" _Joan of Arc. She's a French hero."_

" _French?"_

" _Français? C'est une langue et une culture. Comment ne savez-vous pas ce qu'est le français?"_

Shoot. His voice sounded really hot like that.

He started laughing in her head while Mal tried to shake the blush away. "Joan of Arc," she told her friends, trying to resist the urge to fan her cheeks.

"Who's she?" Carlos asked.

" _I can't believe you don't know what French is. You are French. Maleficent is French."_

" _Maleficent is Moorish, Ben."_

" _The French Moors! Je vais seulement vous parler en français maintenant."_

" _Stop it!"_ Mal fought to keep a straight face as her cheeks burned. " _Who's Joan of Arc?"_

" _Ah, she was an eighteen-year-old girl who led an army to success against my great-grandparents. Was captured in a battle, tried for heresy, and eventually was murdered and became a martyr."_

" _And you thought I would like her because…?"_

" _Well, for one, after her death, her sister Catherine D'Arc turned against my great-grandparents, fled into the moors, and became a witch. She separated the moorlands from the Kingdoms, married into Fae, and well, here you are four generations later."_

" _Four? I thought you said she fought against your great-grandparents."_

" _She was like, 16 when she died in childbirth. But Joan became a symbol of reform and Catherine is a symbol of witchcraft. Also, your_

_great-great-grandmother."_

"Mal?" Someone shoved her shoulder. Mal blinked. Evie, Jay, and Carlos were all staring at her.

"Are you okay?" Evie asked. "Your cheeks are red."

" _Ha-ha."_

"I'm fine," Mal scowled and nodded at the portrait. "Joan of Arc is like, my great-great-great aunt. She fought against King Adam's family all the way back when."

"Ah, I see history repeats," Evie chuckled.

Neither Ben nor Mal found that very funny.

Jay pointed onwards. "Well, enough of the history lesson," he said. "Let's bounce."

" _Mal."_ Ben's voice seemed more grounding and real than Evie's, Jay's, or Carlos's as they began weaving through people again. Mal didn't even have another chance to take another glance at Joan before she had to follow them. The advertisements for the wand were becoming more copious the closer they got to it.

But then they almost walked right past it.

In all fairness, none of them had ever seen the wand before and weren't exactly expecting it to be set in the middle of the room on a pillow with nothing but a glass cylinder surrounding it. It wasn't crowded either - only a couple of gawking children. The nearest guards were socializing with a middle-schooler holding a notebook. This was too easy.

"Is that Beast's spell jar?" Carlos asked as they approached the covered artifact.

"No," Mal shook her head at the same time as Ben confirmed it in her head. Her mood soured a little bit. If it wasn't enough her hands were clammy and her cheeks burnt and her stomach twisting, now Ben was actively spectating. What had happened to "not-much-to-say" Ben?

" _Also, you keep answering my friends for me and I'm curious why you can hear that when I don't hear anything anyone says around you."_

" _I don't hear them. You're just better at thinking about how to respond to them than I am."_

Evie put a hand on her shoulder. "Did you hear what I said?" she asked. "Do you need some water?"

"No, I'm fine." Mal brushed her hand off. "Sorry, what did you say?"

"I asked if you were feeling okay," Evie frowned. "Mal, are you sure you're fine?"

"I'm fine," Mal repeated. She stepped up to the wand. Goodness, it was gorgeous. Longer than her entire arm and it sparkled in the light. A sphere resembling a carriage was in the center. Had it always been there, or had it been added after Cinderella's story? Were carriages just a specialty of Fairy Godmother's? Mal tilted her head. The wand was held facing the ceiling and set on a little pile of crushed blue velvet. And then there was...

"It looks like there's an alarm," Carlos muttered. "Look up. If you touch the glass, then-"

"It doesn't matter," Mal whispered. She began to laugh hysterically.

" _What? What happened?"_

"Why not?" Evie asked. She stepped by beside Mal and spotted the same thing Mal had. "Oh… well, that would have been nice to know."

"What is it?" Jay asked. Evie pointed to the base of the wand. A little piece of paper laid beside the wand read: "Fairy Godmother's wand has been removed from the Museum of Cultural History in preparation for the Royal Coronation."

"It's not the real one," Mal whispered. "It's just a… clever copy. Phony wand."

"Well," Evie sighed. "I guess it doesn't matter at all now." She paused, then perked up. "Let's go back now. Maybe we can catch Doug on the bus. He's smart - maybe he'll know where they put it."

" _Doubt it_ ," Mal thought. Judging by his surprise and cautious relief, not even Ben had known - and he was the one being coronated. She shook her head still. "Yeah, let's head out. This place gives me the creeps."

* * *

Everything in her head had been silent for several hours. But that was to be expected - Ben was asleep and so was the rest of Auradon. Evie had passed out before the sun had even finished going down and was cooing softly in her sleep about every twelve seconds.

The white curtains fluttered in the breeze from outside. Across the room, Evie let out another sigh of contentment. That was 1,264 sighs since eleven fifteen. Five every minute… how many hours was that? Gosh, who liked math anyway?

Mal hauled herself up onto her forearms and squinted at the alarm clock on Evie's side. (Hers had already become lost because she and Evie both knew she'd light it on fire the second it went off. So long as Evie got up, Mal would get up too.) It blinked back at her like it was just as sick of her attitude as she was of her restlessness. 3:27. Evie's alarm would go off at six and Mal would be due to be up at eight. She let her head fall back into the pillow with a groan.

All things considered, Mal was pretty used to sleeplessness. And this whole… sharing a room thing… was new. She'd never fallen asleep around Evie before. Because, for as lovable as Evie was usually, she could be lethal and knew how to create deadly toxins and poisons of all shapes. Plus, if they were attacked and Evie was on watch duty, they'd die. Beautiful she might be, but her thorns required time, not strength. Mal had fallen asleep on Carlos's watch once and he'd been so surprised that he'd woken her up a half-hour later to make sure she hadn't died. Jay, she trusted because he was a follower and he always had her back and he was strong enough to keep them safe for a while if something happened in the night.

Mal rolled onto her back. That was it. The only three people she'd ever considered falling asleep around. In a nutshell. She didn't even dare to sleep around her own mother.

Would she be comfortable to sleep if Ben was in the room?

Mal closed her eyes with a groan. This again. She just couldn't escape him. She wished she could just… snap at herself to shut up her head but, unfortunately, her head knew exactly where those orders were coming from. And they knew the director was full of crap.

" _He might draw a mustache on your face,"_ her thoughts continued to nag. " _Or maybe he'd take advantage to hold your hand or something."_

" _I'd wake up,"_ she argued back.

" _Not if you were comfortable."_

" _Shut up or you'll wake him up."_

But still, her thoughts refuse to cater to her desire for sleep. She sighed and sat up straight. This was just so… pointless.

What had Ben said the punishment for sneaking out was? School service? They'd have to catch her first.

Mal tugged her feet into her combat boots and didn't even bother to lace them up before she went to the window. There was a net mesh covering the opening to keep bugs from coming inside, but in the corners were tabs with instructions to pull them. She did, and the screen popped out of place. It had a wire on the side that kept it in place. How handy.

She put the screen down on her bed and then balanced one foot over the nightstand and on the windowsill before swinging out. Their room wasn't on the ground floor, but this building was made of grey bricks with little ridges… she could handle that.

About thirty seconds later, she was on the ground and wondering what to do next. The boys were right next door, fast asleep. She'd just left Evie in her room, fast asleep. And there weren't even any people on the grounds because they were all fast asleep. She could crash Ben's room but he was fast asleep too and she wasn't even sure if she wanted to see him yet or not.

Another breeze blew through, ruffling her pajama bottoms and nightshirt. She crossed her arms. Maybe she should just go up? Heaven forbid anyone see her like this anyway.

But there was something nice about being in Auradon and being able to walk around without people keeping track of her. Some sort of demented freedom without any barrier or walls or expectations.

About twenty feet into the green lawn was the table Audrey had been sitting at when Ben failed to break up with her. Mal rubbed her arms and went to sit down on the tabletop, letting her legs swing in between the bench and the bars holding her up. Down by the road, a car passed in the distance. Apparently, she wasn't the only one up this late, but they would never know that the daughter of Maleficent was sitting here.

She tilted her head back. Goodness, there were so many stars…

There was a step behind her. Mal spun around to stare at the encroacher and her hands shook. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, stumbling in dress shoes with laces untied, and with wrinkled pajamas was Ben.

He yawned as he walked the long way around the table and sat down beside her. Mal flinched away. "Hello?' she asked.

"Good morning," Ben mumbled. He leaned back over the table to look up at the stars. Mal narrowed her eyes. Was he going to say anything? Remind her that she needed to be in bed? Was he going to give her a lecture on-

"Why are you being so loud?" Ben moaned, covering his eyes. "Do you know how to think quietly? We should work on that."

"Did I wake you up?" Mal asked.

Ben couldn't shrug from his place on the tabletop, so he heaved his chest instead. "I was having a dream and then I woke up and you were awake so I figured I'd come and keep you out of trouble." He glanced over at her. " _You can't sleep?"_

She shook her head.

" _Maybe we ought to go down to the kitchens. We could get you some warm milk or something."_

" _I'll pass, thanks."_ She looked back up at the stars. Thousands on thousands of lit dots. How did that work? Wouldn't the stars illuminate the sky?

" _Space is a vacuum. It doesn't work like that."_

" _Oh."_

" _Did you know there's a planet made of diamonds? And some science says it might rain diamonds on other planets. Oh! Also, there is this planet that scientists can't confirm exists but they know it's there because of the gravity pull. They call it Planet Nine."_

" _How do you know so much?"_

" _Reading."_

That did make sense, Mal nodded as she looked skyward. After all, his mom and he were big on reading together. She leaned back onto the table and, after a moment of pause, Ben stretched his arms up above his head and slowly let one fall behind her head.

" _Want a pillow?"_

She pulled her hair out of the way and settled her head on his bicep, still staring skywards. She blinked at the stars. They didn't seem nearly as patronizing as the alarm clock.

"Why can't you sleep?" he asked aloud suddenly.

Mal hummed. She closed her eyes to think and suddenly they were stuck there. "Just thinking," she muttered.

"About what?"

"Just today."

Ben hummed a little and the vibration went from his chest through the table and made Mal's fingers vibrate a little as she held them to herself. "C'est dommage," he murmured. She laughed aloud.

" _What's it mean_?"

" _That's too bad."_

Mal yawned. "I guess I'm tired now. Perfect timing." She sat up. Ben followed her.

"I guess now you have your answer. You are comfortable enough to fall asleep around me."

Mal stopped and stared at him. "You were awake?" she asked.

"I think I woke up when you were complaining about math again."

She pulled her lower lip in between her teeth and chewed on it. Ben focused on it almost involuntarily and watched her teeth dig it back and forth. She caught a few scattered thoughts of "soft… pink…" but ignored them. "How did I not hear you?" she asked.

Ben looked up in surprise. " _Shoot, she's going to be-"_ he started and cut himself off with a cough. "I, uh, figured out how to think to myself. So I'm out of your head now." He glanced at the ground and rubbed the back of his neck.

"When?" Mal asked.

" _Yesterday. At the museum… I was trying to block you out and you stopped replying and I realized… I could withhold myself a little."_

" _You were trying to block me out?"_

" _Yeah, I guess I was a little hurt you were trying to destroy my kingdom and acting like I was the bad guy for not wanting you to."_

Mal didn't want to look at him anymore. She turned, glanced back down at the road, and then hopped off the table. "Goodnight," she muttered and left before he could say anything back.

* * *

"It… is… eight… fifty!" Evie declared, tugging on Mal's arm until her deadweight body fell onto the ground. "Up! Now! Or I swear to God I'll make you get into a dress for the day."

Mal sneered. "Give her a sting to make her scream," she muttered to herself and an array of white sparks shot from her fingers. Evie shrieked and Mal pulled the covers back over her head. Evie kicked her in the arm and Mal yelped, then snarled.

" _That hurt…"_

_"What do you mean it hurt?"_

_"I dunno - it just went through to me somehow."_

" _I thought you were staying out of my head now?"_

" _I was going to say good morning…"_

" _Well, good morning and goodbye!"_

"Mal, you need to get up right now or you'll miss breakfast."

" _Ben, when does breakfast end?"_

_"I thought you said goodbye?"_

_"Ben!"  
_

_"Mal!"_

_"Please?"_

" _It already ended. You can start grabbing snacks around 10. But your first class is at 9:50."_

Mal gave Evie a groan of affirmation and curled up tighter. "What's our first class?" She mumbled.

"We don't have any classes together today."

Mal pulled the covers off of her head. "What?" she demanded.

"I have a cosmetology hour while you have Safety Rules for the Internet. Then you have History of Pirates and I have Safety Rules. You have pottery, I have Interior Design, and then you're an aide for two hours and I have math and English," Evie explained, gesturing to a board she'd decorated and hung up. All four - the boys included - of their schedules were hung up with stickers and times to further help direct them. "Technically, I have crafts in twenty-five minutes, which is why you have to get out of bed now."

"I do not! I have a free hour!"

"But you have to get ready!"

"This may surprise you, Evie, but I'm not invalid. I can take care of myself."

Evie gave another growl of frustration. Mal mimicked her in a higher pitch as she slowly wrestled to her feet, gathered up her blankets around her, and then dumped them on the bed before re-burying herself into her cocoon. As she did, she caught the snippets of a daydream from Ben. She couldn't tell what, but knew he was thinking about her somehow.

" _You're not very good at this staying-out-of-my-head thing."_

" _Better than you are."_

She growled again but didn't have a comeback. Evie ignored her and began setting out an outfit on her bed. In the far distance, someone knocked.

"You can come in, boys!" Evie yelled, but no one opened the door. A few moments later, there was another knock. "Oh, I hope that wasn't the Fairy Godmother…" Evie winced. Mal listened to her heels click, click, click across the floor before the door swung open. Evie squeaked.

"Oh, Prince Ben!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing here? What's this?"

Mal fell off the bed again in her hassle to get out of the covers and sheets. She knocked her head against the nightstand while trying to wrestle her ankles free and glared across the room towards the door, rubbing her head. Ben was there, biting his lip to keep from laughing, and Evie was mortified. She tried to shut the door a bit, but Ben took a tiny half-step forward and Evie was forced to keep it open. "You okay?" he called.

"Fine," Mal snarled.

"I'm so sorry about her," Evie said, rubbing her fingers against her brow. "She's not a morning person. What's this?"

"I saw you and Jay and Carlos at breakfast, but I didn't see Mal. So I decided to drop this by just to make sure she wasn't going hungry or anything. If you both already ate though, I can take it back…"

Evie wilted. "She slept in. The idea was to punish her for not getting up on time."

Ben's brain suddenly became very… loud. As if there were a million different arguments he wanted to make on the situation but couldn't even begin to sort through them all. "With all due respect, Miss Evie, I believe you have all gone hungry far too often under my watch."

He sidestepped her and walked further into the room. Evie's mouth fell slack as she watched him walk in and set the plate on Mal's bare bed. Mal remained on the floor, staring up at him as he fixed some disposable silverware beside her plate and then glanced down at her. Another daydream appeared from him - he wanted to touch the side of her head and see if there was a bump from where she'd hit her head. Instead, he only asked: "Is your head okay?"

Mal chewed on her lip and nodded.

Ben's mouth contorted into a smile. He held a hand out to her, crouching as he did. "Need a hand up?" he asked.

"I can manage." Mal used a hand on the nightstand to leverage herself to a standing position. "Um, thank you, though."

"No problem!" Ben turned away then. And it was so strange - without his gaze, she felt so… vulnerable. She was second-guessing everything; her hair, her face, the state he'd found her in. It hadn't been a problem two minutes ago, why did she have to worry once the trial was over?

Ben took Evie's hand to kiss it as he headed back into the hallway. "Sorry to interrupt your morning," he said. "You have crafts for the first hour, right? Have so much fun - that's a really popular one. And, uh, thanks for taking care of Mal."

He and Evie both laughed and Mal felt something like a cauldron of poison boiling in her stomach. She slowly began sinking to the floor again, ignoring the food Ben had brought her and the covers tangled up around her. She saw Ben give her one last look over Evie's shoulder, and then the door was shut.

Evie hummed. "He's so kind," she marveled.

Mal nodded and continued to sulk. In her head, Ben's presence intensified, which she assumed was his way of mentally knocking, and then he asked: " _You okay? I didn't mean to embarrass you."_

" _I'm okay. Thank you for bringing me food._

Three beats of long silence.

" _I'm sorry for what I said to Evie about her taking care of you. I didn't mean that."_

" _I know."_

" _And the hand-kiss was just something I do… you know Evie's not my type."_

" _I know."_

" _Then why are you still sad?"_

" _It's just… there's something wrong with me, I guess. I don't know why that irked me so much."_

More silence.

" _Do you want to talk about it?"_

" _No."_

" _Okay."_

Mal got on her knees and reached for the food. As she glanced through the items and wondered what they were, Ben filled her in. He also re-reminded her of her class schedule for the day. Mal let him chatter. It was nice to not be arguing with him for once. Just listening.

" _There actually was a reason for bringing food by,"_ Ben admitted.

" _Warning you now that I do not accept food proposals,"_ Mal said. She waved to Evie as Evie left and then relaxed her head against the nightstand.

" _Not quite…"_ Ben winced. " _It's just… I got another idea to break up with Audrey, and I was wondering if you were free after school?"_

Mal groaned and slammed her head against her nightstand again, right over where she already had a goose egg. That was answer enough.

**This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994.


	7. The Script

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994 of Fanfiction.net.

**This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994.**

Finding the room numbers wasn't nearly as hard as it had been when she'd been trying to guess off of Ben's bemused emotions now that she knew the system for how things were laid out. It took all of a minute and a half to make the trek from pottery to her final class - an aide for advanced art.

She paused outside the door. Unlike most of the classrooms, there was a window to the left of this door. A large and clear window. She could see straight in at the few students who had begun taking their seats. They were all spread so far apart… even though there were upwards of fourteen different tables that sat four each, only five of the tables were occupied and they were occupied one kid to all four seats. Mal furrowed her brow as she watched one girl set an open laptop on the desk across from her, her backpack on the diagonal desk, and then an extra bag filled with snacks and junk food in the chair beside her.

" _I thought snacks weren't allowed in class?"_

" _Some of the teachers make exceptions for the older, more laid-back classes."_

Mal bit her lip and then nudged the door open with her foot. The other students glanced up almost lazily, then returned to unpacking their stuff. Some glanced pointedly between her and a tall, lanky man behind a hidden desk as though to signal her where she should be looking.

She found herself unfolding her schedule as she stepped forward. Her throat felt like something fuzzy was caught in it as she held it out. But the teacher waved it away with a goofy smile. "I'm Mr. Fritzle. I hear you're my new aide?"

She nodded and glanced up behind his head. Thousands of framed and mounted canvases hung behind his head. "That's what I was told," she mumbled.

"Perfect. Well, I'll pass you so long as you show up every day. Sometimes I'll make you sort things or grade papers, but for the most part, you're free to pick an empty table and use the supplies."

He pointed behind her and Mal turned to look around. Gosh, this room seemed so… big. And the tables seemed so far away even though they weren't. The people seemed small and the cupboards seemed to be so full and her head felt so tight. Was she going to faint?

Against her will, she felt something bright and sunny appearing in her chest. Ben snorted in the back of her mind, but she was already moving past all the students, picking the table in the middle and at the back. It was one of the furthest from the door, but the door seemed so unimportant at the moment.

She watched the other students take their things out of cupboards and nooks and crannies. They were numbered, she realized, and when she looked down at the desks, they were numbered too. That meant she had cubbies 28-32.

The room had so much… stuff. Pencils long and short, colored and charcoal. Thick and thin brushes with plastic and horsehair bristles. Pastels and papers and boards and clays… glues and inks and stencils and so many different paints.

"I barely know what half of those things are."

"Ah, well now you know what it's like to be thrown into a world where you have no idea what everything is." Mal hummed happily to herself as she explored among the shelves. She picked out a larger board, glancing at the teacher, Mr. Fritzler, to see if he'd stop her. He barely batted an eye as she took it back to her tables.

The other students were tilting their tables up – it took Mal a moment to figure out how to do that, but once she had it tilted at an almost-vertical angle, she felt like nothing could stop her.

" _What will you be painting?_ "

" _I have no idea._ " Mal laughed a little to herself and covered her mouth with a hand.

" _If you want, we will need to be commissioning a new painting of me to add to my dad's."_

" _No offense Benny-boo, but I think me painting the crown prince of Auradon might make people talk._ " She traced her fingertips across the board. " _I think I might do a dragon."_

" _I'm not surprised."_

There was a fondness in his tone that made Mal feel like blushing and curling up as much as it made her glow and straighten up. She picked a pencil and started free handing the slope of the dragon's spine. Ben tried his best to pick up on what she was doing, but painting didn't exactly take any thinking and Mal wasn't interested in stopping every few seconds to explain what she was doing. Eventually, Ben gave up on prodding and began spectating from a distance.

Everything in her life narrowed down to her mission. This dragon, curling around inside the borders of the canvas. It's entire existence in her hands, and everything about it dependent on her actions. Relying on her to make the correct decisions. Trusting her knowledge and experience.

Ten minutes to the final bell, Mr. Fritzler circled around to her desk. His eyebrows shot up and he nodded his approval. "Well," he said with a breath. "I see why Prince Ben thought this would be a good place for you. You're very talented."

Mal shrugged but appreciated the thought. Ben had certainly helped her a lot and she was glad he'd thought to do this on top of everything. Maybe… she should tell him.

A little color bloomed into her cheeks as she took the canvas down and walked to stow it away. Ben probably knew now that she'd thought it, of course, unless he was very distracted. But still.

The bell rang after she'd finished cleaning everything up. Mal left and even thanked Mr. Fritzler before she left.

Something strange had happened. The world seemed more golden and the sunlight wasn't hurting so much. Mal felt a little bounce in her step as she walked that refused to stop no matter what. Where was she going? She didn't know. Did it matter?

" _Where are you?"_

Ben appeared in her head at her request. " _Meet me outside the lunchroom?_ " He asked.

Meet him… yeah, sure, why not? They could grab snacks and chat before she went to find Evie, Jay, and Carlos. She could already imagine the corner of his mouth turning up as he rolled his eyes…

And suddenly the lunchroom was before her eyes.

She hovered in the doorway and leaned her back against the wall as she skimmed the tables. He wasn't sitting at any of them. " _Hello?_ " She called. " _I'm here."_

" _I'm here too._ " A hand landed on her arm. Mal turned around. There he was. He'd combed his hair down and his cheeks looked a little flushed as he guided her out of the doorway to the lunchroom. Then, he turned her around and pointed back into the room. Mal followed his finger and the bubble her good mood had existed in popped so quickly she didn't know if she'd ever actually been in a good mood or if she'd just tuned out of herself for a while. " _She's right there."_

" _I see that."_ Mal scowled at Audrey. A dull bell rang in the back of her head. " _Oh. Breakup attempt number two. Do you have a plan this time?"_

" _Oui, enfin, presque. Une moitié de plan."_

" _Translation."_

" _Yes, I mean, almost. Half of a plan. I have these…"_ Ben turned a little away from her, picked up a bag off the floor, and pulled a few items out of it.

Mal's shoulders dropped. " _You've got to be kidding me,_ " she snarled.

In his hands, Ben held flowers and chocolates. And the chocolates were in a heart-shaped box. Mal let a hand rest on her forehead, but the gravity of her disappointment in him immediately dragged her hand back down.

" _I thought it might… soften the blow."_

" _I'll bet ten bucks she throws them back in your face."_

" _That's not all."_

" _Shoot, Ben. Did you get her a note too?"_

He stayed silent, pursing his lips. She caught a few of his thoughts. Now that he was witnessing her reaction, he was open to admitting a lot of doubts in his plan. But he had done all this planning and brought this stuff and felt a little like he should still go on with it even if he thought it might have been a stupid idea.

" _It's… not for her."_

Ben tucked the box under his arms and pulled something out of his pocket. It was a folded paper that was purple, though the color didn't help Mal like it any more. She snatched it out of his hand, unfolded it, and began to skim.

"Hey Audrey," it began. "Can we talk? Ben and I have something we want to say."

"Ben!" She exploded, out loud this time. Ben flinched. "You cannot do this!" A couple of people glanced over at them and Mal felt Ben begin to panic. After all, he was standing in a secluded corner with flowers and chocolate and he had not broken up with his girlfriend yet. He quickly set them aside and waved everyone's gazes away.

"It's not a lot… I'll do all the real talking. I swear-"

"You want me to say that I would love to be friends with her as I am helping you break up with her?"

"Well, maybe that isn't the best line and I should have-"

"We wish you the absolute most wonderful days and know you will soon find someone that – god, Ben, way to assume things about her, about me, about us!" She shoved him back and then flicked the note in his face for good measure. People were still looking, so Mal made sure to keep her voice low as she waved a finger at him. "Here's your problem. You're a spineless boy who wants an easy way out of a relationship that you lost control of. If you wanted me to be your easy excuse, then you shouldn't have started dating her in the first place. Playing the soulmate card is pretty weak now that Audrey doesn't suit your tastes. What, am I your fallback?"

Ben paused and looked a little ashamed. But Mal wasn't done.

"Furthermore," she hissed, still whispering. "I had no intentions of dating you before and I'm not lowering myself for a boy who needs me to start his own breakup talk now."

"Mal, I'm sorry. Could you-"

"You didn't even ask me!" Mal exploded. Her voice was loud now and Ben flinched as he glanced at everyone around. "You wrote me a script without thinking about how I would feel about it. Just like how you brought us here without thinking about how we would feel about it and just like you're more concerned with how all these people around us will think badly of you than how they would think badly of me if I went through with your stupid plan. You know what Audrey would do to me – to my friends – if I did that? Did you hear what she said to us when we first showed up? Do you want me to be arrested?"

"Arrested?" Ben repeated. "For what?"

"For anything!" Mal threw her hands up. She wanted to just… grab his head and shake him. "Who's Fairy Godmother going to believe between her and I? You drag me into this and she'll be convinced I'm plotting or something." Mal picked up her bag from beside the door and began to stomp into the lunchroom.

"Mal, can we please just-" Ben grabbed her arm. Mal spun around so quickly she didn't even register the world around her moving. She seized his wrist and squeezed – hard. Ben's grip immediately faltered and she was able to push his hand off her. He retreated, rubbing his wrist. She'd probably bruised him. Good.

Before Ben could protest or anything, she stomped away into the lunchroom. It got a little quieter as she walked in, but most people kept talking. With a snarl, she grabbed a water and some granola bars off the snack table before heading out to the courtyards. From there, she could head to her dorm and lock herself inside. Perfect.

Ben kept pleading. " _I'm sorry… I know it was dumb… I shouldn't have done that… I should have asked for your advice… please come help me… I don't know what I'm doing…"_

She ignored him, but it was pretty clear from her own thoughts racing across her head and fighting themselves how she felt about his issues. Eventually, he fell silent and Mal assumed he'd locked himself out of her head.

She wrestled herself into her dorm, nearly breaking the lock, slammed the door, and buried her head in her pillows. Then, as if from a distance, she could hear Ben begin to speak.

" _Hey, Audrey. I need to talk to you."_

" _Oh, Benny-boo! What's this?"_

Audrey sounded exhausted and overjoyed. Ben was at a loss for words.

" _It's… um…"_

Should she help him? He didn't deserve it.

" _They're for you."_

" _Oh, you're so sweet! Thank you so much – you must have known I was having a bad day."_

" _Yeah. I just… wanted to, um… You see, Audrey…"_

Some sort of beeping sound echoed through Ben's head. Dread pooled in his stomach.

" _What is that?_ " Mal asked.

" _Oh, sorry,"_ Audrey sighed in Ben's head. " _I have to go…"_

The conversation faded out as Ben stopped hyper-focusing on the conversation and remembered Mal didn't want to speak to him at the moment. Still, his plan must have failed. Mal pressed her fingertips to her eyes.

Two long minutes passed and then Ben said: " _She had a hair appointment."_

" _Good. She needs it."_ Mal buried her face further in her pillow and took a few deep breaths. Her face, her eyes, her neck… everything still felt hot.

" _I'm outside your door."_

" _Are you?"_

" _Yeah. I thought we could-"_

" _Go away, Ben."_

There was no protest. He left without another comment or apology.

* * *

Mal stayed in her room until after dinner. Evie, Jay, and Carlos came around with room for her as the sun was going down. "Hey," Evie called as she settled down on her bed. "We brought you food."

Mal didn't say anything. She didn't even move as Evie nudged the plate closer to her.

"Someone said you yelled at Prince Ben today. What was-"

"Where's your magic mirror?" Mal cut her off suddenly.

Evie was startled. "My mirror?" she asked.

"Your mirror," Mal spat. "The one you use in class and to look up what stops we need to get off at. The one your mom gave you all the way back when. Where is it?"

Jay and Carlos exchanged looks as Evie fumbled around in her bag. She held it up and showed Mal. "It won't work for-"

"I know it won't work for me," Mal cut her off. She got to her feet and put her hands on Evie's shoulders. "Repeat after me. 'Mirror mirror in my hand…"

"Mirror mirror in my hand…" Evie repeated with wide eyes and a tremor in her tone.

"Where does Fairy Godmother's wand stand?"

Realization and delight lit Evie's eyes up as she finished the rhyme. The mirror's image changed. It was sitting upright in a silver box. A vault.

"Zoom out!" Carlos said, leaning far over her shoulder to squint at the screen. "Right there! Holy crap - it's been right under our noses!"

"Where?" Mal demanded. She took a piece of whatever meat was on the plate Evie had brought and - hey, that wasn't too bad.

"Fairy Godmother's office," Jay announced, clapping a hand to his head. "Oh my gosh - we were right there! We were in her classroom! We could have knocked her out and…" He swung a fist at some sort of invisible annoyance.

" _Perfect,"_ Mal thought. "Where's Fairy Godmother, and what sort of protections are on her office?"

" _What's perfect?"_ Ben asked.

Mal furrowed her brow and pictured slamming a mental door in his face. Then, she waited. For several seconds, nothing happened. Had she figured out how to shut Ben out of her head?

" _No, I'm still here."_

Oh, for all that was evil and-

" _Sorry."_

" _I'm so sick of you and your sorries."_

" _Sor-"_

"Let's go now," Evie decided. She opened her nightstand and withdrew a long, thin knife. Jay went to the door and flung it open. Mal and Carlos bounded out into the hall as Evie positioned her knife in her sleeve so that she could easily flick it into her hand if anything came at them. Knowing Evie, it was probably poisoned as well.

How far was Fairy Godmother's office? Five minutes? Great - five minutes and she'd never have to worry about her mother or Ben or Auradon ever again.

" _Did you find the wand?"_

She didn't answer and Ben went silent. Maybe that was it - she just had to ignore him long enough and then he wouldn't be able to peep at her thoughts. Hmm…

They exited the building where their dorms were located and then began heading out across the lawns. Despite the later evening hour, students were still out loitering. Hero kids reading and working on homework and gossiping as they walked with their friends and romances. Mal spied a boy leaning over his girlfriend's shoulder as she worked and thought that that was exactly how Ben acted.

They reached the main building with relatively few problems - no one really noticed them - and Mal was just reaching for the handle when the door flung open. Jane was there, looking startled as she clutched at least twenty empty file-folders to her chest. "Oh, hello!" she exclaimed. Then she caught sight of one of the people over Mal's shoulder. "Carlos! What are you all doing?"

Where before, Carlos had looked confident, mischievous, and prepared for this battle, he suddenly became ashen and startled. "Jane," he said in a very small voice. "What are you up to?"

"I was just grabbing these for my mom," Jane replied, running her thumb down the paper tabs as a little color bloomed into her cheeks. "What are you doing?"

"I lost a pen," Carlos lied. "It was cool, so we're looking for it. I think I might have left it in your mom's classroom. Is it open?"

"Oh, yeah it should be." Jane nodded. "I haven't locked it yet. I'll be running these to her, bring back some papers, and then I'll lock. Just leave it open for me and you're welcome to take a look inside." She paused and Mal watched her look up. She swallowed. "If you need help finding your pen, I should be available after that. Maybe you and I could... hang out afterward?"

Jay coughed and the tips of Mal's ears tingled. It occurred to her that Carlos knew his soulmate's name; Jane. Was it this Jane?

Another thought made her pause. This was the same Jane that Ben had thought was her? Really?

" _I said it was a long shot."_

" _You're still here?"_ Mal spat at him about the same time she blurted out: "You have magic?"

Her intrusion into Jane and Carlos's conversation was sudden, unexpected, and loud. Both stared at her. Carlos especially began trying to signal her to back out of their space. He'd stepped up to head the group while Mal had entered her little daze.

"Uh…" Jane trailed off, going an interesting combination of red and yellow. "Who told you that?"

Mal got the distinct feeling Ben was laughing at her. Too bad. He wouldn't be laughing once they got past Jane. She scowled. "A beast passed it on."

"Ben?" Jane exclaimed. Mal blinked. She hadn't meant to insinuate that Ben had told her, but…

"Was that what you were arguing about earlier today?" Evie murmured in Mal's ear. "You still haven't told us."

"Let's just go get the pen!" Mal exclaimed. "He didn't tell me, he just mentioned that there were… other people here with magic." She slid around Jane and into the building. "Come on, guys. You can talk to her later, Carlos." But she gave him a pointed, urgent look, and a little stone returned to Carlos's expression.

"Right," he chuckled and patted Jane's arm. "I'll come to find you if we can't find it. I'm pretty sure I left it in here, though. I remember I was doodling a little during class."

Jane giggled, nodded, and went on her way. Carlos slipped inside, followed by everyone else.

"So, is that her?" Jay whispered in Carlos's ear, loud enough for Mal and Evie to overhear. "Is that Jane, 'Jane'?"

"Dunno," Carlos shrugged. "I, uh, haven't broached the subject to her, because I don't want to sound too desperate, but there's no way she could know my name because I never told her."

"Well, if she is, maybe your mom will let you keep her around," Mal reminded him in a cut-and-dry tone.

"Better than being alone with her," Carlos reasoned. "At least I have someone."

Mal glanced suspiciously over her shoulder. He was giving her a firm look. "Ha-ha." she scowled.

"Guys," Evie rolled her eyes. "Carlos, don't jibe her like that. Now, let's go." She opened the door to the classroom. It was dark and empty. In the back left corner was the door to Fairy Godmother's office. They wasted no time in racing over. Evie tried the knob again, but this one was locked. Carlos immediately hit his knees and began pulling gizmos out of his sleeves. He tried a couple of different rods in the lock hole until one slid in a few inches and Carlos began to twist and fiddle. Another rod, a pair of thin tweezers, and then something clicked and the door opened to the dark office.

"Yes," Evie cheered under her breath. "Now, we have to be quick. Before Jane comes back."

Out of the corner of her eye, Mal saw movement. She panicked. "Ghoulish, freakish, devilish and selfish. Distinguish presence and traceless vanish!"

Everyone vanished. Mal heard Jay take a breath. "What the…" he began, but Mal shushed him.

The classroom door opened and someone with honey-brown hair stepped inside and shut the door behind him. Mal clamped down on her tongue to keep from cursing. " _You have got to be kidding me."_

Ben looked around, straightening his outer suit coat as he did. His eyes landed on Fairy Godmother's office door and he quickly wove around the desks towards it. Carlos yanked his lock-picking tools out of the knob, trying to be as discreet as possible. They vanished as soon as they were in his hands. Then, they all quickly got out of the way as Ben walked into their space. Mal seethed as he tested the lock on the door, re-locked it from the inside, and then shut it.

"What's he doing here?" Evie hissed into Mal's ear.

"Shut up!" Mal growled back.

Ben looked around over his shoulder and then feigned a confused glance around the room. "Is someone there?" he asked.

Across the room, the handle started turning down slowly. That must be Jay, trying to escape into the hall.

" _Where are you?"_ Ben asked her from his head. There was a singsong quality to his voice that made her want to rip him limb from limb.

" _You knew I thought you weren't listening."_

" _I fully believe in the use of stratagem to protect myself and others."_

" _Does that give me permission?"_

The handle turned down more, and Ben pretended to finally notice it. He moved towards the door, and Jay was forced to release the handle. Ben tested the knob, feigning confusion, and then let a look of false realization pass over his face.

"Ah," he said aloud. "Mal? Can I help you find something?"

" _I'm not budging an inch."_

" _That's fine. I've got all night."_

What were the chances she could teleport them out? Her mother could travel around in clouds of smoke - could she? Still, that would leave plenty of proof for Ben and he'd then be reasonably open to interrogating all of the villain kids. As it stood right now, unless he could catch one of them, he had nothing but two inconsequential happenings and an underlying suspicion to present the Fairy Godmother with. He could still leave, let them escape or whatever, but then he'd sound bonkers to her friends and the Fairy Godmother and this would help him be able to ask them questions and put them on guard even if he couldn't get her to be cautious enough.

Also, it would probably serve to inflate his ego quite a bit.

" _Let's see here…"_ Ben hummed and took a few steps forward. " _Où es-tu?"_

" _Shut your mouth right now."_

" _Tu rougis? J'ai l'impression que tu rougis."_

He was coming closer, and now Mal was a little frazzled. He took a step straight toward her, ran a hand through his hair, and Mal almost fainted. " _You stay away from me!"_ she sputtered, sounding off-guard and flustered even in her head, and then took an involuntary step back - away from both him and Evie, who could probably feel the blush coming off of her at this point.

" _Venez ici, venez ici, où que vous soyez."_

" _I don't know what you're saying so just shut up and get out of my head!"_

Mal stumbled over the stair to the stage as Ben took another step forward, bit his lip, skimmed the area he'd deduced where she was, and then lunged forward. Mal tripped, fell, and slammed her shoulder into Fairy Godmother's blackboard.

"Oh shoot," Ben gasped, crouching down. He managed to grab her ankle without any hesitation and then began feeling up her leg for the rest of her. Mal squeaked and shoved his hand away as he reached her knee. He grabbed her hand instead and quickly found your shoulder. "Are you okay?" he asked. "Did you cut yourself? Should I call for help?"

"Don't touch me." Mal surprised herself with exactly how much venom she could put into her tone. "End this false reality and let us all be seen." Across the room, Jay fizzled into view with two outstretched hands and an open mouth. Carlos looked like he'd watched his life flash before his eyes. Evie was hovering behind Ben, hands up by her face in anxiety, and with wide doe eyes. And Ben was still on his knees in front of her, one hand on her shoulder and the other on her forearm, looking like he'd slaughtered a puppy.

"I'm so sorry," he gasped out. "Are you okay?"

Mal shoved his hands away. "Hands off!" She snapped. "Don't. Just… don't."

"How did you know she was there?" Evie demanded as Mal leaned forward and began to rub her shoulder. Mal glared at Ben as he took a little.

"I'm part-beast," Ben said to Evie as he straightened up and held out a hand to help Mal up. As if. She ignored his hand and got up herself, brushing her jeans off. "I can see through some spells. I thought I saw purple."

" _You are so full of crap."_

Ben didn't respond, but she could feel his smugness rolling off him like waves onto the shore of her annoyance. Her friends looked equally skeptical. "Really?" Carlos asked.

"Yeah," Ben nodded. "The curse never fully wore off of my dad, so I ended up with a bit of it too."

"Oh," Evie said. Her voice was flat with disappointment. "What are you doing here?"

"Could ask you the same thing," Ben hummed.

"We're looking for my pen," Carlos volunteered. "I thought I left it in here and we thought Fairy Godmother might have put it in her collection in her office."

"And you were invisible because…"

"Because we didn't want to be accused of anything." Mal rolled her eyes. "Now, why are you here? It's almost curfew - some sort of late-night school session?"

"I was just passing through," Ben shrugged. Mal stopped rubbing her arm and let her arms fall by her sides.

"Your dorm is three buildings that way." She pointed through a wall.

"Yup," Ben agreed and refused to add anything else to that point.

" _How did you know where we were going?"_

" _Um, see, it's this little thing called 'I'm your soulmate and I have access to your thoughts and you are not as subtle as you think you are.'"_

" _I am going to rip every bone out of your-"_

"So what else can you do?" Evie asked, interrupting both Ben and Mal's thoughts.

Ben blinked at her for several seconds. "Pardon?" he asked.

Evie pulled at the collar of her jacket so that the fabric pulled away from her shoulder. She blinked, long and slow. "What else can you see through?" she asked in a very low, very sultry tone.

Every alarm in Mal's body began blaring.

Ben went beet red. "Oh, um, no." He shook his head furiously and waved his hands back and forth. "I can't see through - no. It's just… glamorous and transformations and things like that. Charms and animations and, um, conjured items… I can't see through those. I don't I can't…" He swallowed hard and his throat was hoarse when he started to speak up again. "I can't look through clothes. No."

" _It's quite fun to watch you freak out this much."_

" _Would you rather I just come clean now?"_

Touche.

"I don't think anyone would mind," Evie laughed, taking a few steps closer to Ben. He began to panic as he set a hand on the blackboard chalk tray for balance. "After all, you're the future King of Auradon. I figure they might even get some privileges…" She took two fingers and walked them up Ben's forearm. Mal felt a little light-headed.

Ben slowly pushed Evie's hand away. He gave her a shaky smile. "Evie, I appreciate the thought, but I'm not very interested in you."

"Ah," Evie feigned hurt. "I thought you and Audrey weren't really a…" she put her fingers up to make air-quotes as she spoke, "thing."

Ben swallowed. "No, but…" he took a little breath. "I'm not interested in you. I think you're beautiful, but I've learned I like girls who are…"

" _Don't screw this up."_

Ben swallowed. "There's someone in particular I'm going to wait for. Sorry."

" _You little spitwad."_

" _That's creative, Mal."_

The door opened again. It was Jane. She jumped a little when she saw Ben and then smiled. "Oh, hey Ben. What are you up to?"

"Just wandering through," Ben smiled at her and headed towards the door. "Oh, ah, here's your pen, Carlos." He procured a black and red pen from his sleeve and held it up for approval. It was fancy, with grooves to put your fingers into, sleek patterns along the sides, and something told Mal that it wasn't any ordinary school-issued pen. He tossed it at Carlos with a smile. "Didn't you say you were going to go find Jane after you found it?"

Carlos's mouth fell open a little as Jay and Evie exchanged a glance across the room. "Yeah," Carlos agreed. "Thanks for finding it, Ben. How much longer until curfew?"

"About thirty minutes," Jane blushed. "Do you want to go sit out by the tables and talk?"

"Yeah." Carlos nodded and he and Jane slipped out. Ben waited by the door as Jay, Evie, and Mal made their way to the door. He held the door open for them as they walked out and then shut and locked it behind them. Mal seethed.

"Have a nice night," Ben smiled and walked off.

"He knows too much," Evie mumbled once he was off. "Carlos didn't say a word about Jane - how did he know."

"He's the crown prince of Auradon," Jay muttered. "He probably has bugs somewhere. Or maybe he heard us outside." Still, he shook his head. "He can see through disguises? That sucks."

" _Only the ones that I cast,"_ Mal thought, crossing her arms in disgust. Any plan they made from here on out would have to not involve her until she could figure out how to shut Ben out properly.

Evie poked her arm. "M? What do you think?"

Mal shook her head. "I'm out of ideas at the moment," she muttered.

"We could go back…" Jay reached for the handle.

"Not without Carlos to pick the lock," Mal sighed. Ben would come back anyways.

Evie set a hand on her shoulder. She had a smirk stretching across her mouth. "I think I might have one more idea…" she hummed.

**I'm about to pull a 63-hour workweek, so this is going up now.**

**This story is a collab with Harry Potter Fan 1994.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994 of Fanfiction.net.


	8. Cookies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994

**This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994.**

Jay flounced into the room, showing off his new tourney shirt. Mal looked up and a rush of pride filled her. A rush of two prides, really. Ben caught the glimpse that her imagination sent to him and puffed up. It had been his idea to send Jay to the tourney tryouts. Mal rolled her eyes and turned her attention back to her book with Ben saying nothing as the words went straight through her without her stopping to read them. Blah, blah, blah… divide both sides… blah, blah, blah… quadratic formula.

" _The bit on the top part is called the discriminant."_

" _And I care…"_

" _You'll need it for the test."_

"Mal." Three manicured nails landed on the pages in front of her face. Mal flicked her eyes up.

"Evie."

"Jay and I had an idea."

"Bold of you."

"We looked through your spellbook."

Mal gave a sharp jerk. "More bold of you!" she exclaimed.

" _Bolder,"_ Ben corrected. " _And chill."_

Mal rolled her eyes and missed one of her present friend's rebukes to her attitude. Luckily, though, she had a response to both. "That was in my drawer. You went through my stuff. That is full cause for anger."

"Yes, but we had an idea and needed to know if it could work," Evie sighed and took a seat on the bed beside Mal. "And it all revolves around Prince Ben."

That, Mal was not expecting. She stared at Evie as Evie procured her spellbook from where she'd been holding it under her arm and began flipping through it. "By the way, there are lots of useful things here. Getting rid of pimples and sores, how to grow your hair longer, and even-"

"Get to the point before I rip the book out of your hands and beat you with it." Mal hissed through her teeth. Evie frowned.

"Well, Prince Ben is going to be King and he seems to have access to everything in the school. Arranging our classes, introducing us, he seems to be pretty involved."

" _I'm normally not."_

" _Too busy fighting against child abuse?"_

" _Rallies, meetings, my dad pulling me out to help in the office, and that too, yeah."_

"That and the fact that his girlfriend will get to be up front with him during the coronation," Evie continued. "So we were thinking that the easiest way to get to the wand is to have an inside person. In short, we think that Prince Ben needs a new girlfriend."

"You tried that yesterday," Mal pointed out. A bit of lingering annoyance built up inside her as she recalled Evie exposing her collarbone. "He wasn't interested. Remember?"

"That's why we need-" Evie turned the book around and put it down on top of Mal's math book. "-A love spell."

Ben made a noise like a slaughtered pig in the back of her head, then began to laugh hysterically. Mal stared, dumbfounded, at the page. Evie and Jay suddenly became a bit nervous as they stood, twisting their hands in front of her. Carlos let out a deep breath from where he was sitting at the base of her bed, running his fingers through Dude the Dog's fur as he texted Jane on his phone.

"Let me get this straight." Mal took a deep breath. "You want… who? Jay or Carlos to seduce the future King of Auradon? He already said he wasn't into you."

Jay turned a bit green while Carlos looked up with a frown. "I'm a bit… preoccupied."

"I doubt Ben is attracted to either you or Jay anyways," Mal snorted as she picked up the spellbook and took a closer look. "Read the fine print - spell works best with an existing attraction."

"It'll work without one," Evie declared. "And read the small print under the fine print."

Mal squinted. The grey lettering read: "This spell can only be used by the caster."

Mal pursed her lips. "You mean me."

"Grand conclusion, Sherlock," Jay snorted. "None of us can use magic."

"Can't you?" Mal frowned and squinted at Jay. "Your dad was a genie." She turned to Evie. "Your mom was a witch."

"And this is Maleficent's spellbook and so far, we can't use it." Evie crossed her arms. "So we spell Ben, you lead him on in public, and then we get the wand and blow this popsicle stand."

"We do have to be careful," Jay cautioned. "He's smart and if he sees through this curse, it'll be a problem for us."

" _Doubt it,"_ Mal thought glumly.

" _What happens if there are already existing feelings?"_ Ben asked.

Mal scowled a little at him but skimmed the page until she was able to answer him. " _It amplifies them."_

" _Great. Just make sure you don't give one to Audrey for me."_

" _Believe me, that's the last thing I want."_

"We've already got all the supplies," Evie announced and then pulled a small container out from under her bed. Rose thorns, ashwinder eggs, powdered moonstone, pearl dust…"

"Hold on a second!" Mal held up a hand. "I haven't agreed to this and I'm still rather annoyed you went through my book. What if I'd rather not spell the King of Auradon to me?"

"Well, what's your idea, then?" Jay crossed his arms and leaned against the post of her bed. Evie also stopped and looked at her as if she was confused about what Mal had missed. Even Carlos looked up at her like she was an idiot.

" _I've got an idea,"_ Ben suggested. " _What if you ask me out normally because a love spell isn't needed?"_

" _Ben, give me excuses."_

" _I'm out of ideas."_

" _You're just saying that because this gets you away from Audrey."_

" _No, I have no idea how to get around this."_

"Mal, this is the easiest, most secure way to the wand," Carlos said. "Ben knows too much. He's already caught us once. If we want to do this, we have to go through him."

"Yeah, having you there will help us keep an eye on him," Jay said. "You'll know what he's thinking."

Ben began to laugh again.

"Why don't we just go through Fairy Godmother again?" Mal asked.

"The wand was moved," Evie informed her. "To Beast's Castle. So even then, Ben would be the best way in."

"It's all fake anyway," Jay said. "Just… what, five days? At the least? That'll be a cinch."

Mal pinched her lips together. How could she refuse the plan without any good reason to? She tossed the book aside and pulled her math book back up to examine. "Fine," she said. "But we'll all keep our eyes out for a different plan."

* * *

Mal did make sure Ben was asleep when they made the spell. This plan, so far, was the hardest for her to go through with. Something about spelling Ben, even though it wouldn't do anything, didn't sit right with her.

What was Ben planning on doing? Delaying her? He hadn't said a word to her about it other than the snide and sarcastic remarks that were currently eating her up, and she couldn't peer into his head to find out what was going on.

Evie helped her add everything in and mix to the right consistencies, but Mal had to do the actual magic casting herself. She flinched when Evie yanked a long strand of her hair off the top of her head and then dropped it into the pot they were working with. It flashed purple, and Mal was forced to swallow the last of her regrets.

"As this spell takes it's folly, so true love will come to me." She raised her hands, moved them in opposite directions over the potion's surface, and tried not to shout in surprise when the entire thing shrank down and slowly turned a more yellow color. Down and down in the pot and until all that was left was a yellowish mush that smelled like sugar.

Evie held up two packages with a smirk. One was labeled "chocolate chips" and the other was labeled "walnuts". "I happen to know from Doug, who is Ben's good friend, that Ben likes chocolate-chip-walnut cookies. So, here we go."

Mal swallowed. Chocolate-chip-walnut. In another world, that would be something good to remember. Here, it only made her feel more guilty.

* * *

" _So, you did it,_ " Ben hummed as Mal walked down towards her locker with her friends at her side. Usually, they made her feel powerful, but today they were making her feel a bit trapped. Was there an easy way to ask them to leave her alone? " _How was it?"_

" _Fine."_ Mal rounded the corner to her locker and winced when she heard Audrey's voice up ahead.

"I just want to know what you were talking about with her, Ben," Audrey declared. "She's been around you, like, so much! And now I feel like you're sneaking around me. Just… why can't you be honest with me?"

"It's a bit more difficult than it seems," Ben sighed and scratched his head. "Listen, Audrey, I'm sorry, but I don't want to explain what's going on right now."

Mal opened the door to her locker. The motion drew Audrey's attention. Ben turned around to look her up and down. From Audrey's angle, it looked like nothing more than a casual glance. Something she huffed at, then turned on her heel to walk away from. But judging from Jay's thoughtful hum, Ben was probably doing a bit more than just taking in her outfit.

" _I'm about to be spelled. Cut me some slack."_

" _Yeah. Ha, ha, ha. Listen, I was thinking we could just...send you off with this somehow and you can throw it away."_

" _Ah, so you don't want to spell me?"_

" _No."_

" _Hmm."_

" _What's hmm?"_

" _Hmm, I think someone's feeling guilty."_

Mal snapped her locker door shut and reached into her jacket. There was a pocket inside where the cookie was being stowed. "Hey, Benny-Boo!" she cooed and then crossed the hall in five long steps.

Ben's eyes shot up to her face. "Hey!" he exclaimed and let a bright smile cover his face. "You look nice today, Mal."

"Thanks," Mal withdrew the cookie from her jacket. Ben's pupils dilated as she moved her jacket back into place. "I just made a batch of cookies. Double-chocolate-chip with walnuts in them. Saved one just for you because I know they're your favorite."

Ben met her eyes and she saw a little confusion there. "They are," he agreed. "When did I tell you that?"

It was a real question and an unwelcome one. Mal glanced over her shoulder at her friends. "You didn't," she reminded him. "A little bird told me."

" _Ah, right. We don't talk."_

" _Nope."_

Ben took the cookie and brushed her fingertips as he did. He held it up to the light a little. " _So, this is the love spell?"_

" _Yeah. So just stick with me for a moment, then you can take it, go throw it in a nice trash can, and maybe we'll hang out together a little more so we don't raise suspicions with my friends."_ Mal crossed her arms and watched a smile cross his lips.

"This means a lot to me, thank you Mal."

"No problem." She made a little half-gesture at it. "Everyone else liked them, so why don't you tell me what you think?"

"I'm playing in the game later today," Ben said, sticking his lower lip out a fraction. "I'm not supposed to eat for three hours beforehand. Tourney is a rough sport and all. But maybe later?"

"Sure." Mal gave him two thumbs's up. "Sounds great. Just… keep me posted about it."

Ben tilted his head and Mal heard the crinkle of plastic as he fiddled with the cookie. "This means a lot to you, huh?" he asked and took a step forward. "Do you… do a lot of baking on the Isle?"

"Not really…" Mal trailed off, leaning back a bit. He was entirely too close to her now. Her throat was dry. "So you, just, uh… let me know."

"I'm sure you're an amazing baker."

"Thanks…"

Ben hummed a little and then withdrew a little. "Well, I won't leave you waiting." He held up the cookie and Mal had a split second to realize it was unwrapped. Before she could react, he sunk his teeth into it and took a giant bite.

"No!" she started and cut herself off too late. She stayed still, hands partially outstretched, and totally lost. He'd eaten it. She couldn't believe him. Why had he eaten it? She'd given him a perfect out and everything! Yet she could feel his smugness creeping through her head like a drug as she stared at the crumbs sticking to his mouth. She was so shocked she forgot she was supposed to say something.

"How – how are they?" She stammered, then mentally slapped herself. It, not they.

"They're great," Ben told her honestly, drinking up her shock like it was going out of style. And suddenly she felt the effects on him, how the drug was starting to creep down his spine and into his system and – oh no – into hers as well.

_They shared a brain. What happened to his brain happened to hers._

" _Checkmate._ " He whispered in her head. Mal's legs shook.

" _You planned this."_

" _I think I'm a genius."_

" _You're sadistic."_

" _That too."_

His eyes were glazed over as he stared at her and she could tell she was probably looking a little similar. Flushed cheeks, sweat gathering behind her ears, and shaking hands. Shaking hands that she wished were more steady so she could slap him or ball them up or rip his shirt open so all the buttons would go flying everywhere and hit Jay and Evie for coming up with this stupid plan that had utterly screwed her over.

" _I'd love to kiss you right now."_ Ben murmured as he stepped forward. His tongue appeared, wet his lips, and he let out a breath. "Mal," he mumbled aloud. "Will you be at the game today?"

"I'll be watching Jay," Mal gasped. He was eyeing her neck and it felt like a hot burner wherever he let his eyes drag. Oh, she was so dead. So dead…

"I'm glad," Ben said under his breath as he reached forward and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Every pore was in pain. She leaned her head into his hand, craving more. "Because the truth is… I feel something very strongly for you. And I'd feel so blessed to have you watching me out there today."

"Number eight, right?" Mal stammered.

"Number eight," he agreed, then leaned forward and kissed the top of her cheek, right on the bone. "I'll see you then."

He walked past her, down the hall, and Mal collapsed against the lockers. Evie, Jay, and Carlos immediately appeared around her. "Oh, come on," Evie sighed. "It wasn't that bad."

" _I am so dead,"_ Mal thought. And even though she couldn't hear Ben, she had the feeling he was laughing even more now.

Carlos handed her a cold water bottle from somewhere as they guided her to sit on the floor of the hall. Mal's knees were still shaking. Her heart was speeding - she wanted Ben back. Wanted him here with his hot touch to soothe this burning heat that was making her bones feel like cracking. Wanted the cooling strokes that turned her skin to stone and made her icy heart swell. Wanted the relief and the pain and the idea that someone knew exactly what she was thinking all the time, every day, even when she was confused.

God, why had Ben walked away?

Someone cleared their throat as Mal found herself at the bottom of the water bottle. Alcohol had obviously been invented for feelings like these, she thought as she looked up. And then the feelings grew worse when she recognized the pink print of Audrey's dress.

"Didn't I tell you to stay away from him?" Audrey demanded. Her voice was so high-pitched that Mal started seeing stars.

"I don't know why you thought I'd obey you, but yeah, you did." Mal brushed herself off and stood up. She couldn't stop thinking of Ben. Ben's strong arms, Ben's thick hair, Ben's thin lips…

"Mal, I expect you to have some common decency while you're here, and running around with my boyfriend is about the opposite. I'm sure Queen Belle would agree with me." Audrey put her hands on her hips. "You're to exercise common decency, thoughtfulness, and a general upstanding manner of citizenry, or be sent back to remain Lost."

Evie, Jay, and Carlos all snapped their heads towards Mal, who balled her fists up. "You tart!" she snapped. "You have no idea what you're talking about! And you're threatening to frame me for something you don't like or understand."

"No, you don't understand!" Audrey snapped. "He's my boyfriend, my best friend, and my future! We grew up together! I've been training to be queen since I was in training heels!"

" _Stop it,"_ Ben told her. " _I'm on my way. Don't say anything else to her."_

" _Me stop it? Are you hearing her?"_

" _I think the whole school can hear you two now. Stop it, Mal."_

Mal began ignoring his stern reprimands in favor of shouting at Audrey. "Well, let's talk about common decency!" she declared. "Telling your boyfriend to stay away from other people and threatening to have people locked up for being around him seems like a great place to start!"

"What about scheming to break people up?" Audrey snapped back. "What a perfect activity for someone whose mother cursed babies."

"If your boyfriend is talking to me about breaking up with you after I've been here three days, I think that says more about your relationship with him than it does about me."

"He's not in his right mind! You think he would have ever brought filth like you over if he was?"

"What an excellent, supportive girlfriend you are," Mal ran two fingers down her chin and began counting on her fingers. "I see why he thinks the way he does about you. You forbid people from being around him, say he's out of his mind when you don't agree with him, and say you've been preparing to be his queen since you were a kid. A perfectly functioning relationship. No wonder Ben is looking to the villain girl for help breaking up with his nasty control freak."

A couple of people in the hall who had been watching shot each other anxious glances. Audrey's mouth fell open. "You're lying!" she exclaimed. She turned and looked frantically around the hall. Her eyes landed on someone in the hallway. "Ben, tell her the truth!"

Mal turned her gaze towards Ben. "Yeah, tell her the truth, Ben!" She crossed her arms. " _Or don't. Keep on living this out with me while you string Audrey along because you don't have the guts to break up with her."_

Ben turned his face away from her gaze. He took a deep breath. "Audrey… we haven't been working out for some time and I did ask Mal for advice on how she would break things off with someone. That's the truth." Audrey let out a little gasp. "I don't feel like you listen to me, that you only agree with things that help you… I hate how you tell my friends to leave me alone… my own mother has asked why I've kept this up this long. And I didn't want to be mean, so I kept dragging this out, but I need you to know that I don't want to date you anymore. I want to break up."

Audrey whirled around. "You've got him under a spell!" She exclaimed.

"No, she doesn't, Audrey-" Ben began even as Mal flinched.

" _I technically do."_

"She does!" Audrey continued, hollering as her face grew red. "He's under a spell - don't you see? She's going to use him to take over and this will be the end of Auradon!"

"I want nothing to do with him!" Mal snapped. "Put your head back in the light, Audrey. Quit blaming your problems on me."

"I wish your mother would have stayed dead," Audrey hissed and a few people in the hall gasped.

"Audrey!" Ben snapped. "Would you leave Mal out of this? She has nothing to do with the fact I don't feel that way for you."

"Oh no, Ben," Mal rolled her eyes. "Let her rant. Doesn't change the fact you don't love her and she'll never be queen. Her dreams are dying."

"I hope you spend the rest of your life like your mother!" Audrey declared. "Shriveled and chained and left with nothing but her own madness because you don't understand kindness and you aren't worthy of anyone's love."

Oh.

That stung.

The smile dropped off of Mal's face. She took a half step back and her back hit Jay's chest. He put his hands on her biceps to support her. She felt like falling down. Spiraling. Whizzing towards the ground.

Ben stepped between him and Audrey and tried to comfort her with soft words and gentle hands while she tried to shoo him away. It took Mal a moment to register Ben's voice in her head.

" _I can't believe you said that,"_ he seethed. " _I can't believe you would be so childish… do you think this is a game? To play with her feelings?"_

" _Her feelings? Playing?"_ Mal balled her fists up and saw red. " _You literally took a spelled cookie on purpose because you knew it would carry over to me! You made a script and expected me to go along with it! You're just like her! You want to fit me into your box and get mad every time I don't fit in with your life!"_

" _I gave you everything! I don't know what else I can do - you will literally have my entire kingdom if you stay with me. I just don't understand how you can be so narrow-minded!"_

" _Maybe that's why we're soulmates. I see people as passing distractions and you see them as playable pawns. Throw a few gifts at them to earn their loyalty and drag their entire lives the way you want them to go."_

Her words must have shocked Ben a little, because he turned around with an open mouth.

An open mouth Mal didn't see because she had turned and stormed away from everything.

**Happy Bal day, everyone. Hopefully, Disney decides to release a wedding scene soon.**

**This is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994


	9. Kissing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994.

**This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994.**

**_I should mention that this story is rated T for teens. No adult content._ **

In the back of her mind, she was acutely aware of Ben's every movement. She could feel him waving people along, putting his hands on Audrey's shoulders, and could feel the thump of his heartbeat behind her own.

It was driving her insane.

She wanted to throw him as far as she could and drown him with her bare hands and watch the life go out in his eyes just as much as she wanted to be curled up in his arms, sobbing her soul out, begging him to never leave her and never move so they could die together in whatever spot they managed to meet in. Curse this spell - her thoughts were full of Ben and now there was hardly any room at all to be mad at him.

She needed to get this thing off - now.

Her spellbook had been left in her bag beside the door in her and Evie's room. She barreled into the building, unlocked the door with a glare, and then accidentally flung the handle into the doorstop with such force that a dent appeared in the door. Oops.

Mal wrenched her bag off of the hook Evie had put it on until she felt the cool metal grace her fingertips. Perfect.

"Let's light Audrey's hair on fire," she thought as she dropped the rest of the bag onto the floor and watched the contents spill out over the rug.

Ben winced. "Could you not?" he asked.

"Actually, you're the problem."

Mal growled and tossed her spellbook onto the bed. She slammed the door with her foot and then hurled her body onto the bed before she started flipping through the pages, looking for some sort of table of contents. Right after the "Spells" section was a long list. Mal skimmed it. It was in order by alphabet and with two columns per page. Halfway down, the "how-to" spells started and took up an entire page.

How to absorb acid. How to adjust the temperature. How to alcoholize...

She turned the page.

"How to break hearts" was right above "How to Break a Love Spell." Mal sighed in relief. Then, she paused when she saw the following entry.

"How to break a Soulbond."

She paused, considering this, and in her moment of deliberation, Ben's thoughts reappeared.

" _No_ ," he said firmly. " _No. Don't do it._ "

Mal opened the book. She flipped through the pages and found what she'd been looking for. She skimmed the title again, ignoring Ben's increasing protests, and then her heart sank a little at the second heading. "Possible side effects - broken mind, frozen heart, melted brain, right-sided paralysis, projectile vomiting, purple thumbs."

That was a bit too much risk.

" _I can't believe you!"_ Ben thundered. " _How could you even consider - don't you even think about how this affects me?"_

" _Huh. I guess I'm picking up on your methods."_

Ben cursed, which made Mal's eyebrows shoot up. Still, the spell - or rather a potion - to break a soulbond was out of the question at the moment, so she decided to let him continue to wallow in his own misery while she flipped the page forward one and skimmed the list of ingredients needed to break a love potion. Frog guts, more moonstone, a few more rose thorns… oh. One tear of human sadness.

She didn't cry though.

Ben didn't butt in to refute the statement either because he knew it was true. He knew the closest she'd ever come to crying, but that was it. She'd never shed a single tear in her life.

Evie or Carlos or maybe Jay could probably do it, but the thought of hurting them that badly made Mal's stomach twist a little bit. Ben could, but he wouldn't. It would have to be someone else, but she doubted anyone in Auradon would be open to helping her break a love spell over herself and her soulmate that she had neglected to realize would affect herself.

So she either had to wait to somehow steal a tear from someone or find another way to break the spell.

Absolutely perfect.

* * *

" _School's going great. How are things at home?"_

" _Not bad. Your mom asked if you're getting enough sleep with everything you've been picking up."_

" _I am. Yeah. Everything is balanced. It's going well."_

" _How are the Isle Kids?"_ Mal tuned out then, knowing Ben was trying to focus on talking to his dad and that her peeping probably wasn't helping him. Plus, something about Ben telling his dad everything was fine grated on her soul. She tried distracting herself by doodling in her sketchpad, but her attention was drawn back to Ben's conversation when she heard King Adam ask about her.

" _And Maleficent's daughter? She's… behaving?"_

Ben struggled to find words. Mal listened to his thoughts racing. " _She's… she's…"_

Mal cleared her throat in her thoughts. " _Not really doing anything?"_ she suggested.

" _She's not really doing anything. She loves the art class, but other than that, I don't know how she's adjusting."_

" _Well, you should find out. She's the one I'm worried about. She could be plotting something."_

" _Have a little more faith, dad,"_ Ben sighed halfheartedly. " _Yeah, I'll ask her how things are going. She's just… not introverted, but she doesn't seem very interested in talking with us."_

There was a long pause that Mal filled by drawing a thick line and shading the outsides so it looked like an invisible prism had been set in the middle of the paper. She wondered if Ben had started blocking her out again until she heard King Adam's voice float through again. " _I still don't really like this experiment, Ben."_

" _I'm sorry to hear that."_

" _You don't know anything about these kids, Ben. And you're letting them run rampant… There's no security."_

" _Dad, I'm sorry, you're not going to convince me otherwise."_

" _You had so much else you were doing. Remember cleaning out the southern districts? Advancing Camelot out of the medieval ages? You even had plans with magic, though I'm not sure I entirely like that either…"_

" _I still have those plans, dad. But this is important. It's a problem that I'm not going to wait five years on."_

King Adam let out a long sigh. " _You're still a kid, Ben. You don't know it all. What if they do something and this becomes one of your regrets?"_

Indignation flooded Mal from Ben's side. He stayed silent, but she could feel him shaking. With a sigh of her own, she closed her eyes, imagined prodding him in the side, and then began feeding him words he could use.

" _I don't think I could ever regret choosing to save lives, Dad."_

" _Exactly what I'm talking about. You don't know these kids - they could ruin Auradon if we don't watch them too closely."_

" _No, dad, this has nothing to do with_ _ruining_ _lives. I'm talking about saving them. Keeping people from dying. The Isle is a death trap with no security, it's the least prosperous nation in the kingdom, and their people are ignored in every aspect. No voices, no help - dad, we don't even take census records! And the amount of food we export hasn't changed in the last twenty years. The fact these kids exist is a problem - the population has changed and we aren't accounting for that."_

Ben took a breath. " _Listen, I appreciate you looking out for the general whole. But I'm looking at each kingdom on an individual basis. The Isle of the Lost is a dump - a mark of shame. And I'm not going to let it stay that way. And if I have a few kids that don't want to be good, fine. But I'm not going to… throw out an entire orchard of fruit trees because a few are knocked over in the wind."_

" _And what if they hurt someone?"_ King Adam asked. " _Let's say they steal someone's phone. How do you compensate for that?"_

" _Oh, boo-hoo, someone lost a phone. Meanwhile, we have upwards of a hundred children starving to death, being abused, and never receiving a proper education. Phones, kingdoms, money? That can all be replaced. People can't, dad."_

" _Well let's say they hurt someone. Someone is hospitalized. What then?"_

" _You know, dad, I'm embarrassed for you. You're trying to tell me that some people's comforts are more important than the fact kids are dying."_

" _No, I'm trying to get you to look at the bigger picture. I-"_

" _No, you're trying to get me to look at your picture. I'm the one looking at the big picture here. You are punishing children for nothing. I'm not going to wait to pass the Isle down to my kids - do you really intend to keep generation after generation on that island? We need change, we need it now or soon, and I don't care if Auradon is uncomfortable while I fix your mistake."_

" _My mistake? I'm sorry, Ben, who built this kingdom from the ground up? You wouldn't be king without me."_

" _From the ground up is a stretch. You were selected after uniting the kingdoms."_

" _Who laid the frameworks for the government? Gave us power? Who wrote the same laws you studied growing up?"_

" _That's all great and dandy but that doesn't mean you didn't leave a massive problem for me thirty miles off the coast."_

" _Ben, I think you're being a bit too harsh here. Why don't we-"_

" _Goodbye, dad. Tell mom I'll call her later."_

Mal heard the beginning of King Adam's protest, but Ben hung up with a beep and let out a withering sigh. She stretched out on her bed and listened to his frustration about nothing in particular as she burrowed her chin into the bedspread. Ever since their fight, she'd been acutely aware of all of Ben's movements, and so she could kinda tell when he flopped onto his bed and hid his face in a pillow. She gave him a mental poke.

" _You did good."_

" _Thanks."_

" _Yeah."_

He didn't withdraw from her head, so when Mal closed her eyes, it felt like he was still there, just within arm's length. God, she loved him. She could close her eyes and imagine tracing his lips and face and watching his eyes flick up and down over and over.

Oh, this spell….

This was all fake. All fake feelings and she had to remind herself of that. But oh, evil, they felt so good.

Mal picked herself off the bed and cracked her neck as she stretched it. Evie looked up, then returned her focus to the chemistry workbook she was flipping through. Chemistry and Evie. Who would have thought?

"I'll be back," Mal called, pulling on her jacket.

"Curfew is soon. Don't get caught."

With another nod. Mal opened the door and headed down the hall. She poked at Ben again, who gave a little "hmm" in response that made Mal weak in the knees. " _Directions?"_ she asked.

" _You coming to see me?"_

" _Something like that."_

" _Room 504."_

" _I didn't know the dorms went up to 500."_

" _Mine is unlisted. My mom didn't want me sharing with anyone or anything. She's paranoid about people… taking photos of me while I sleep or pawning my stuff or just being… weird."_

" _Ah."_ Mal deduced where room 504 would be and started heading towards it. The closer she got, the fewer people were around. Some gave her sideways glances and one followed her a hallway, but she ignored them all.

Ben's hallway was empty and his door was the same dark color as hers and Evie's. A bronze plaque identified it. Mal raised her hand to knock, but then Ben moved on the other side and she dropped her fist as he opened the door wide for her.

His room was smaller than her's and Evie and with tan paint instead of the white. Same sized bed, dresser, and table in the center of the room. A desk had been pushed under a window and was currently covered with the contents of his schoolbag. His phone laid abandoned on a bare nightstand. "Don't you have an alarm clock?"

"I do," Ben agreed. "But I'm an early riser. So it's in my nightstand and I don't really rely on it."

Mal hummed, picked up his cell phone and rotated it in her hands a couple of times, then set it down again. Instead, she opened her arms up and watched Ben's careful expression.

He stepped into her embrace without caution or hesitation. His chin hooked over her shoulder as he closed his eyes, sighed, and began tracing his fingers up and down her back. He was like alcohol and now the world seemed shiny and bubbly and off-kilter. "Thanks for coming to check on me," he murmured.

"No problem," Mal hummed. The vibration of the movement made Ben shiver and he moved his head so his nose was buried up against her collarbone. Mal suddenly felt very warm. "Is your dad like that often?"

Ben shook his head. "Don't want to talk about that," he sighed and withdrew. "Want to sit down?"

She did without comment - his bed was soft and squishy and caved under her body a little. Mal let out a dry laugh. "Did your parents also request a special bed?"

"Actually, my birthday present to myself. I really, really like soft places." He sat beside her and Mal slid right into his side. Instead of complaining, she just turned to bury her face in his side. Ben's heart sped up and Mal did her best to keep pace with his thoughts as he tried to stop his own imagination from going too wild.

Too late.

She traced her fingertips down the vertical stripes in the plaid of his shirt, leaning back so she could watch her nails travel down, and Ben kissed her forehead. It was a nice gesture that filled her with butterflies and…

"Sorry," she breathed. "I don't know what's got into me."

"I think I do," Ben laughed. "Should I say it out loud, or…" he nudged her mentally.

Mal rolled her eyes. "It's probably the spell," she whispered and shivered when Ben traced his fingertips up her arms. Ben hummed - she assumed in agreement - and moved his head down. His breath ghosted across her collarbone. "Oh," she mumbled. "You're so… warm."

Ben let out a laugh against her skin and then kissed her neck, teasing her skin with his teeth. Mal's eyes rolled back into her head. " _Someone's excited,"_ he laughed.

"Shut up," Mal growled. One hand crept around his shoulder and up his spine into his hair. " _I'll pull."_

" _Do it."_

She did, as a warning, and was surprised when Ben groaned in response, kissed her neck again, and then slid his hands down to her hips. Now she felt like she was on fire. He was burning - so warm with heat she had no idea where it was coming from. He planted a softer kiss on her jugular, like he was asking permission for something, then his hands slid down over her bottom and he squeezed as he lifted her up, off the bed, and settled her on top of his legs instead. Mal pulled his hair again and he squeezed in return. Her vision was all white and she didn't think she'd be seeing any colors any time soon.

" _This good?"_ Ben asked, letting his mouth linger on her neck and sucking on her skin carefully.

"Yes," Mal gasped. Her breath echoed off the walls of the cold, cold room.

" _What about this?"_ Ben bit down, then continued teasing her skin with his teeth and, occasionally, his tongue.

" _Oh, please don't stop."_ Everything was so loud. It was too loud for words, for any sounds other than Ben humming as he tested her and her own gasps when he did something that made the flame increase tenfold. Even their own thoughts were almost too loud for this heat.

" _Show me what you like,"_ Ben urged as he took his mouth upwards towards the slope of her ear. " _How do you like it?"_ Wasn't he supposed to go down? Mal really wanted him to go down more. She wrapped her legs around him more and tilted her head back. She pulled his hair, trying to signal him to head back south.

Ben hummed and, instead, snaked a hand up from her bottom and up her back and into her hair. He twisted his fingers into her hair, pulled, and Mal's gasps subsided into low moans.

The entire world was dissolving. Everything was melting away. Mal still couldn't see anything behind the bright heavenly lights Ben had somehow managed to conjure. " _You sure you don't have magic? I think you might have lied."_

In response, Ben pinched her butt and Mal pressed herself into him in a moment of withering. He laughed, took his mouth off her neck and moved his hands, and then moved to press his forehead against hers. Mal whined. "This spell of yours is pretty powerful," he murmured.

Right. Yeah. She'd completely forgotten - her head had been fogged over with thoughts of Ben. She felt his mental presence declining as he tried to get a hold of himself and groaned before she rocked her body against his. Ben's hands snapped down to her hips.

"Nope," he said in a strangled tone. "None of that, thank you." He rolled her off of him, laid down, and pulled her to lay beside him. Mal groaned.

"Why?" she whined.

"Why what?"

"Why'd you stop?"

"Uh, because I wanted to." He gave her this little sideways smirk that made the fire under her skin furious. "Why, did you want me to continue?"

Mal seized his shirt and rolled back on top of him. Before he could stop her, she'd leaned down and dragged her own closed lips up his neck. Ben's body went stiff, then limp, then stiff again. He made to roll back over, but Mal snaked her hand into his hair to hold him down a little longer and then planted her mouth against his.

This time, the world went so bright that Mal lost all sense of what bright was and felt as if she was somehow in a very dark room. Ben was so surprised he didn't kiss back, but then his shock wore off and she felt his smile as he took the back of her head and kissed her, all the while slowly bringing her back to safe territory. This time, she let him.

Slowly, the world faded back into greys, and then she became brave enough to open her eyes as she and Ben continued kissing. Her entire body felt drained. All her thoughts had died and her brain felt like some sort of happy goop.

There wasn't really a moment when they stopped, but at some point, Mal became aware that they were kissing less and less and with more time for breathing in between, and then they were lying on Ben's bed together with the last remnants of the sun setting in the window.

Ben sighed. Mal watched his chest go up and down. The first few buttons had been undone so she could better touch his skin, and she watched every breath with fascinated fervor. He was so beautiful, and for the moment, as long as this spell lasted, he was hers.

Ben gave her a sideways glance and his smile turned goofy. Mal shook her head and buried her face in his side. " _Is my mouth all swollen?"_

" _And your neck has purple spots. You might have to wear something to cover it up."_

" _I wonder if I could just pass it off to Evie as me trying to keep you under the spell, and-"_

" _Good luck. She'll see right through that. You wouldn't let me within a ruler's width of space today."_

Mal sighed. She peeked back out and met Ben's eyes around the open folds of his shirt. " _Do I look bad_?" she asked.

" _No. You look so beautiful I want to pin you down and do more."_

Mal hid her face away with a verbal groan. "Couldn't you have done that earlier, when I wanted to? Now I'm tired."

Ben sat up and Mal groaned at losing her pillow. He pulled a long, thin, and squishy one from the head of the bed and gave it to her to cuddle with instead as he leaned over her and picked at her hair, combing out the worst of the mess they'd made together and admiring the color. " _You're a natural purple, right?"_

" _I am."_

" _Beautiful."_ He drank in the sight of her. Mal kept her eyes closed as he admired her though she couldn't keep a smile from sliding onto her mouth. He laughed at her amusement then took a deep breath. "I love you."

Mal opened one eye. "That's the spell talking."

"No, it's not," He leaned down and brushed her hair back from her face. "Mal, I love you."

She didn't reply, only shut her eye again, and curled up into the pillow. Guilt was twisting in her gut. She didn't feel sleepy now that she was thinking about… the real world and their plans and her mom…

"Stay here with me."

Mal gave up on trying to gain back the sleepy haze she'd lost and sat up. "What about my mom?" she asked.

Ben balled a fist up. "What about her?" he asked, and Mal could hear the anger in his tone. She could also feel the anger radiating under his skin.

"She's my mother," Mal said. "What, am I supposed to leave her on the Isle?"

"She's done nothing for you," Ben said. "She's abusive and neglectful. You don't need to hold on to that life."

Mal stared at him. His face was a little red and his hands were shaking as he waited for her answer. She flicked her eyes to the ground beside him. "How is it," she mused, "that we share a brain and yet you still don't understand?"

"No, no, I understand everything." Ben put his fingers underneath her chin and pulled her face up. "You want her to be proud of you. I get that. You want her to love you and you want to have that… connection. And that's been your goal, all your life, but-" He took a deep breath. "You don't need that! You can just - my mom is a good mom and she will love you way more than Maleficent ever could. I love you. And I just wish that I would-"

"Get over my mom?" Mal smacked his hand away. "Ben, are you insane or just ignorant?"

"I just think that-"

"You don't even get-"

"I wish you would-"

"You're not even listening to me!" Mal shouted. "You're making this entire conversation about you!"

"I am not-"

"'I love you'," Mal parroted back, touching all her fingertips to her thumb like it was a little mouth and snapping it closed in front of his face. This had the dual effect of keeping him silent for longer. "'I understand everything', 'I just wish you would', 'I just think that'."

"I'm trying to get you to see things my way-"

"Yes, it's all about your way. You haven't even tried seeing things my way. Or your dad's way. Or Audrey's way. You have… a one-track mind, Ben!" Mal threw her hands out. "I appreciate your thoughts and you're freakishly smart and compassionate but you just don't know how to listen for crap. Everyone around you - their problems are null to you."

Ben sat down with a sour look and clasped his hands in between his legs. "Fine, I'll shut up for a bit. Why shouldn't you try and heal from your abusive childhood?"

Mal gaped at him. Now that she had the opportunity to speak, words were failing her.

"Why should you continue trying to please someone who has failed you your entire life?"

She was standing beside his bed with her mouth open like an idiot and Ben was fuming in front of her because he was so arrogant and-

"I think you forget I was there," Ben hissed. "Maybe not every time, but I could hear you suffering. I know what you went through. Every time she shot you down… that was me too. And it made me angry, Mal. You shouldn't have to live your life getting kicked around for love that will never come when I'm right here and I've always been here." He threw his hands into the air. "I don't understand why you would throw me out when she's never loved you and she probably never will!"

"There you go again." Mal pointed at him. "You just made it all about you again."

"We're the same person!"

"That's ridiculous! You'll use that logic now but not when I'm struggling with math class, so take all that and shove it right back up your-"

"I can't believe you're so-"

"Stop using your stupid 'I' statements!" Mal kicked the bed. "Here's the deal, Ben. You were not there, you did not live my life for me, you have no idea what I'm going through no matter how far in my head you think you are, and you're deciding how I should feel and act all the time, every day, without any consideration for how that makes me feel. What you're doing is exactly why I didn't want you in the first place!"

There was a lot of pain suddenly. Ben looked like she'd slapped him. All the fight went out of him and his shoulders slumped in shock. Mal forced her chin to stay steady and crossed her arms. "You didn't want me?" He repeated.

"I thought you knew everything about me?" Mal asked, though her heart felt like it was crying. "It's different there. We don't like soulmates. It's easy to take advantage of someone. Easy to attack. They see in your head and they know how you feel and they can manipulate you. Exactly what you do."

"I just want you to be happy."

"No, you want me to be… your partner. The artist who gave up everything evil for the most important person in her life. You want me to be… your other half. The person who always agrees and always supports you and perfectly compliments you. You expect me to jump into your life and be your perfect match. But Ben… you have stolen me from my life, tossed me into a school where you organized everything ahead of time for me - and yeah, you couldn't ask me, I get that - but after I got here you kept deciding everything for me. About who I was, about my life, about us... I mean… a script, Ben? You wrote me a script. A script where I broke up your relationship for you so I could get with you and be your perfect girlfriend. It doesn't get much more intense than that. And now you're saying I should give up on my mom…"

Mal's voice cracked and she hated herself for it. "You say you were there, and you weren't. You never saw her… cradling her staff or the way she spoke to me when she thought I was enough. And sure, it wasn't that often, but you have no idea what it was like for your entire life to want her to at least like you and then for her to talk to you like you were an equal. I've spent my entire life trying to be her and you've… barged in and said I need to throw her out. That your mom is a better alternative. Geesh, Ben, do you know how much of a slap in the face that is? 'Mal, your mom is horrible and mine is a goddess. We can share'."

"But she's abusive," Ben said slowly, like he was talking to a child. He stood up, towering over her, and leaned in, holding his hands up to make a box in the air as he spoke. "You're in… emotional trauma. You need to get help and be in a good place and you can't do that if you're always chasing after her."

"Strong argument coming from the boy whose mom probably has Stockholm Syndrome."

"She does not-"

Mal held up a hand to stop him. "My mom wasn't always abusive. Or neglectful. There were moments I had hope. And when you live like we did on the Isle, there wasn't anything else for us. That was all I had, Ben."

"But you have me now."

"You know what, you're great, but you don't replace my mother, Ben." Mal laughed and turned away. Door… where was the door? "I only get one mom, Ben. Leaving people behind isn't as easy as you seem to think it is."

"So what, we're back to destroying Auradon because you hate me?"

Mal paused with her hand on the handle. "I don't think 'hate' is a good descriptor of what I'm feeling at the moment," she called over her shoulder and pulled the door open.

" _Come back,"_ Ben switched into her head. " _We can figure this out. Please just come back and calm down. I'll listen - I swear."_

" _You don't listen though. Or rather, you pick up on the parts you want to hear and then you twist them to either placate or convince someone. You're a diplomat. Not a friend."_

" _I seriously just want you to be happy and I'm sorry I keep-"_

Something changed inside Mal's head. It was like she'd found a door open in her head after wandering around and trying to find where the breeze was coming from. She snapped it shut and Ben was cut off. Across the room, Ben's face fell and he became pensive.

Ah. So that was how he was able to shut her out. Perfect.

"Mal, please-" Ben began, but she shut the real door with a clean thump.

She could feel him knocking in her head, trying to say more, but she ignored the first few taps and he went away after that. Perfect.

Mal stormed away before he could open the door back up. Everyone on the grounds was gone and it was just her and the last few stragglers rushing to avoid Fairy Godmother's curfew threats. She made it back to her dorms right before eleven, whisked her spellbook out of her nightstand, and quickly found the page she was looking for.

Regardless of the consequences, she wanted Ben out of her head. No more sparse thoughts or wonky emotions and no more of this spell. Even if she couldn't break it, she could do this.

Mal was going to get rid of her soulmate.

**This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994.


	10. Neck Cramp

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994.

Mal had been tracing the lines in the table for about five minutes with Evie immersed in her chemistry book beside her when Carlos and Jay finally showed up with their food and sat down. "Glad you could show up," Evie said, snapping her book shut and moving her lunch tray out of the way so Carlos could set his down. "You could have just gotten the chef salad."

"Pizza is better," Jay sighed and took a large bite. Mal wrinkled her nose. She didn't see what was so good about the greasy triangle. For a moment, she expected Ben to pop in her head to tell her about it, but he was still locked out and gone.

"I thought you were going to sit with Jane?" Evie asked.

"Jane asked if she could bail to help her mom with some last-minute stuff with Ben's coronation," Carlos explained. "Speaking of coronation, did you know we have a tourney event the day before? And speaking of Ben, how are things going, Mal?"

Mal's entire mood soured. "Ugh," she groaned and put her head onto the table. All three of her friends laughed.

"Wow," Jay said as he poked at her head. "Someone's in a bad mood."

"My mom's counting on me. I can't let her down."

"Technically she doesn't know," Evie hummed. "But I get it. I can't wait to see my mom either." she nudged Mal's elbow. "Did he ask you to coronation yet? Is everything good to go?"

"Not yet," Mal grumbled. "I'll see what I can do… later." She closed her eyes against the bright lights of the sun and sighed through the bars of the table.

"Hopefully it works and you don't have to ask him specifically. That would raise a lot of questions," Carlos mumbled.

"I can always ask him during practice," Jay volunteered. "Maybe just a 'hey, who are you going to Coronation with', will jog his imagination."

Mal groaned and sat back up. "This was a horrible idea. I'm pretty sure I hate Ben's guts."

There was a half-laugh, half gasp from beside the table. Mal looked up and watched Jane take a seat beside Carlos with a blue lunchbox. Her backpack went beside her seat. "You hate Ben?" She asked.

Mal nodded. "Yup."

"Why?" Evie asked, wrinkling her nose. "He seems nice enough."

"He's a control freak," Mal drawled.

"Oh, I do see that," Jane agreed. She looped her arm through Carlos's as she reached into her lunchbox. "I've had projects with him before. He's smart and he listens… okay… but when he thinks he knows something, you can't really convince him otherwise. He gets dedicated to things."

Mal inhaled and then let out the longest, most frustrated grumble she could. It was so nice to just… growl. "Ben came up to me, goes 'Hey Mal, you look like someone tough, how do you break up with people? I've never had to'."

Carlos coughed in surprise and his mouth dropped open, but Mal wasn't finished.

"I go whatever, we go up to Audrey, he starts stumbling over his words, and so I tell Audrey straight up he doesn't like her and wants to break up. He got mad at me because I was too mean…"

Mal took a deep breath as Jay snorted and leaned back, crossing his arms.

"...so the next time, he brought me a script-"

Evie, Jay, and Carlos burst into laughter. Jane looked horrified. But Mal wasn't finished. "Part of it involved me telling Audrey I would love to be her friend and I can't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure there was a line inviting her to come to talk to me if she needed support."

"That's extreme." Jane covered her mouth in shock. "I'm embarrassed for him."

"He showed up with flowers and chocolates for her. To ease the blow," Mal added, leaning forward on her hands again.

Evie snorted behind her hand and shook her head. "Didn't realize you were so close to the crown prince, Mal. Geesh."

"He's got the stupidest crush on me," Mal grumbled. "Poor guy."

Jay and Carlos exchanged smirks before Jane carefully reached for his hand. Carlos unfolded his fingers and let her take his hand. Mal pointed at them. "Is that official?" She asked.

Jane blushed. "We don't know," she whispered. "Maybe."

"Haven't had a brainwave?" Mal asked. Jane shook her head.

"That reminds me," Jay snapped his fingers. "I heard from my soulmate again. I know who she is now. I just… haven't told her."

"Who is it?" Evie asked. She leaned forward with this bright, excited smile that made Mal feel a little less stressed. Maybe she was frustrated with her soulmate, but Evie still found them magical.

"Lonnie," Jay said. "She introduced herself and then we got cut off." He took another bite of his pizza. "I think she's cool, but we might just stay friends."

"I thought mine was Chad, but he apparently doesn't have one," Evie sighed and slumped her shoulders. She looked at Mal. "Did you ever hear anything from-"

"I don't have one, E," Mal wrinkled her nose up. "I wish you would stop asking me."

Evie wilted. "I thought… maybe you might have-"

"No." Mal folded her arms and propped herself up on them. "Please - just stop asking. I came through the barrier and was overwhelmed with more magic than I'd ever had in my life and that didn't open it up. If I had one, it would probably be the weakest connection ever or something. So, could you please quit?"

Evie nodded as she peered through the bars on the table at the ground. "Sorry," she muttered."

Mal examined Jane and Carlos across the table though. He looked comfortable as she squeezed his hand and smiled when she glanced up at him then back down at her food with a blush. Gosh. It would be a little nice if she had someone who she could be like that with.

"Hey," Jay leaned over the table and nudged Mal's shoulder. "There's a surprise tourney game tomorrow. It's us versus a tourney club in the area. So it doesn't go to the championship. You missed the last game, so will you be coming out?"

"You missed the last game?" Jane asked. "Oh, it was so much fun! Jay did a running leap and stole the ball from six feet in the air."

"That was the day Audrey tried to scream at me for Ben wanting to talk to me," Mal explained. "I was a little… perturbed."

"Understandable," Jane agreed. "I can save you a seat if you want? I'm going to save some seats tomorrow before everyone shows up and the party starts."

"I'm sorry." Mal tilted her head. "What party? Did I miss something?"

"It's 'Family Day' tomorrow," Jay explained, using air quotes around family day. "A day where parents come and hang out with their kids. They usually do it later in the year, but coronation is coming up and a lot of people are traveling for that anyways, so they decided to put it right before Ben's big day."

Oh, the coronation was on Sunday. That had happened fast.

Mal hesitated, then tried to imagine reaching out for Ben in her head. She found him, prodded him a little, and their connection immediately opened to silence as Ben cleared his head to talk to her.

" _Hey,"_ she began, unsure of what to say.

" _Hey."_

" _I was just wondering what family day was."_

" _People's parents come and say hi for the day. There's a tourney game and a dance and a few other things you can do around campus."_

" _Oh."_

He waited to see if she'd say anything else, refusing to withdraw until she wanted him gone, and then made a little sound to announce he was going to start talking. " _I could… arrange something for you guys if you want?"_

" _What do you mean?"_

" _I don't know. A video call? Would you want that?"_

Mal drummed her fingers on the table and then cleared her throat. "Ben mentioned something a while ago about if we wanted to do a video visit with our parents. I completely forgot about it. Do you guys want to do that?"

Jay, Carlos, and Evie all looked up in surprise. Carlos's hand had tightened on Jane's. He glanced between Evie and Jay and gave a shrug.

"I don't need to talk to my dad," Jay muttered and shook his head.

"I wouldn't mind talking to my mom, but…" Evie shook her head. "Maybe now wouldn't be the best time."

Mal blinked slowly. It was odd. Before, they had only been far in distance. Now, it felt like a little indivisible rift had opened up to further separate them from their parents.

" _I think we're good."_ She paused. " _But… thanks."_

" _Yeah."_

Several long, long moments of silence.

" _Are you going to lock me out again?"_

" _Maybe if you start being a -"_

" _Okay, okay, I get it."_

* * *

Ben didn't speak to her for the rest of the day, but she was acutely aware of him and everything he did. He was still stuck on her mind too. She kept imagining herself tracing her fingertips over his muscles, watching him shiver, his hands making her jump as they traced her icy, burning skin. Ben, despite his lack of conversation, did mentally poke her a few times when her thoughts on him grew too personal and pointed for his tastes.

Mal split from the group after lunch to go to class and then stayed in the art room until Mr. Fritzler kicked her out. Evie appeared after dinner with a plate for Mal. "Ben brought this over for you when he noticed you weren't with us," she said by way of greeting as she set it on the bed. Mal sighed at it and nudged it away with her foot. Evie took a seat.

"Are you still angry about what Audrey said?"

"A little," Mal admitted. "But I don't want to talk about it."

"Has Ben talked to you at all?"

Mal shook her head no, which was true. Evie sighed. "What happened with…"

"I don't know," Mal cut her off. "He said something that just… sat with me wrong. I just wasn't expecting it." She put her head down.

"What was it? You tried to say no - did something happen?"

Mal bit her tongue and then glanced up over her eyes. "I kinda think… he knew, Evie."

"Knew about what?"

"The spell. He knew what it was. And he took it anyway."

Evie had gone a little pale. She laughed, but it sounded strained and chirpy. "That - no," she sighed. "He couldn't have. Why would he have taken it?"

"Blackmail?"

"He's an Auradon kid - do they do that here?"

"He did mention to me once that he fully believes in the use of stratagem."

Evie tilted her head and squinted at Mal. "You talk to him a lot more than I thought you did."

Mal shook her head and buried her face away again. "He talks to me. I try and avoid him."

"Maybe we didn't even need to try and cast the-"

"I'm just tired, Evie."

Evie stayed silent for several minutes. "Goodnight," she said finally.

A few seconds later, Mal heard Ben say the same thing in a softer tone.

* * *

The potion was a slate grey that night when she checked on it. She was brewing it underneath the sink in the kitchen with a forgetfulness charm around it that would deter any probing invaders. Another day and she could sever her connection with Ben.

Why did these things feel so complicated?

* * *

Art class was a magical realm where her problems ceased their existence. There was no other explanation.

Mr. Friztler hovered over her shoulder as she painted, stroking his chin with two fingers and nodding. "You have excellent technique," he complimented her. "Who taught you?"

Mal only shrugged. "Art wasn't really encouraged by anyone on the Isle. I just… picked it up. Most of the gang tags are mine."

"Gang tags…" Mr. Friztler muttered under his breath. "What an excellent idea…" And he hurried to his desk to begin a project of his own.

Mal watched him leave and felt slightly guilty for some reason. She had used the Isle as a cover, but what she was painting, she'd never seen any resemblance of before. It had started out as Auradon from the sky, but now she was looking down through wispy greenish-grey clouds and the beginnings of a mangled, ruined landscape. Dotted with gold and white and blue, but twisted and useless and the same sort of eyesore that Mal felt when seeing elderly adults pretending to still be teenagers. But it was fascinating to her and it made her let go of the… stifling… the thing in her chest that had been there ever since Ben had told her to forget about her mom.

The door to the classroom opened and a couple of adults appeared. Mal glanced over, then looked away. It was family day - they were just parents touring the school. Hopefully, they would leave her alone without any whispers of "that's her," as they left.

She listened to them babble and converse with Mr. Friztler, who wasn't exactly a prime source of company now that he had his idea he was working on, and stayed focused on her canvas until she suddenly felt a presence behind her. She turned and found herself with a woman just slightly shorter than her, who was admiring her work. "You're very talented," she murmured.

"Thank you," Mal whispered.

The woman stepped forward to the corner of the desk and exhaled as she examined a mangled archway that Mal had begun with the intention of making it the bridge marker to the Isle. Mal skimmed her. She had short, dark hair and was wearing a yellow sundress with deep pockets in the side. Mal approved.

The woman gestured to the painting. "I had no idea you were so talented," she said. "It's wonderful to meet you, finally."

Oh. So she knew who she was.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are," Mal apologized. "We aren't very… familiar with Auradon royalty on the Isle." At the door, everyone else began to leave, leaving Mal and this woman and Mr. Fritzler alone in the room together.

The woman smiled and Mal realized who she was about four seconds before she introduced herself. "I'm Ben's mother," she said. "It's nice to meet you. Mal, right?"

"Yes." Mal wanted nothing more than to run and shrink and hide from this woman. " _Breathe,"_ she told herself. " _She doesn't know who you are._ "

Belle pointed to the canvas. "Is this Auradon?" she asked.

Mal swallowed. "It… was but I don't know if it'll end up that way."

Belle nodded. "It's a rather good representation," she sighed. "Quite… forlorn. Abhorrent."

"It's your kingdom," Mal deadpanned. "Aren't you… angry I don't like it?"

Belle smoothed down her skirt. "I've never been much of a patriot. I'm proud of my work and I'll protect my people, but some people have blind worship of the country and I just… don't understand that. We still have problems, as you know better than most."

Mal offered her chair to Belle and sat down at the desk next to hers. "Ben is like that, in some ways. Like… sometimes when he talks about the Isle sometimes, he talks as if it's a whole world underneath him, but he's also the one trying to do stuff, so…"

"He tries," Belle nodded. "But he was raised in royalty and is used to seeing problems get… ironed over. He's… diplomatic and sometimes forgets that he can't always make decisions and then smooth things over with choice words."

Mal was at a loss for words. "Yeah," she nodded. "He talks at you. Not with you."

Belle nodded with another beautiful smile. "He does have an advantage," she said. "Ben grew up very sensitive to how people would use him and his name for power, and feels badly when he accidentally… forces people into bad situations because they can't fight back very well. He also is sensitive to fights and violence and trauma, due to the matter of his mind. His earliest ideas were about how he wanted to fix hospitals to help more people."

"Matter of his mind?" Mal asked. "What do you mean? Is there something wrong with his head?"

Belle began to laugh. "No, no. I was only referring to you. Ben's always been very sensitive to your situation. Even when he was little."

Mal's heart shuddered in her chest and she glanced around frantically to make sure no one was around. "You know?" she whispered.

Belle nodded. "Ben talks to me. He always has. I must say - you picked a very apt punishment for him. He doesn't like it when people don't listen to him and has been sad these last few days that he can't talk to you."

"That's rich. He'll lock me out of his head, but it's only a problem when I do the same." Mal ran a hand through her hair in frustration. "Will you… have you told anyone? Does his dad know?"

"Adam doesn't know," Belle shook her head. "He's… a bit more like the royalty in our circle, unfortunately. Old fashioned."

"I've listened to him and Ben on the phone before," Mal nodded. "When Ben gets distracted, I'll catch his thoughts."

"Just in passing?"

"Yeah. We've been in each others' heads since he showed up to meet us on day one." Mal shook her head. "Part of me is still angry at him. He didn't tell me who he was."

"Punk," Belle agreed. "But you didn't tell him who you were."

"I asked who he was and he didn't want to tell me, so I said fine. He only got scared when I mentioned the Isle to him."

Belle nodded. "I know."

"You do?"

"We're close, he and I. He would usually tell me about you every time he learned something. Sometimes he was over the moon. Other times, he was devastated."

"Those are basically Ben's two moods. Plus active skepticism."

Belle began to laugh so hard that Mr. Fritzler was shaken out of his stupor and glanced over at them to make sure everything was okay. Mal was struck by how similarly she and Ben laughed. And suddenly Belle became important to her.

"I can't believe I just told you all that," Mal whispered as Mr. Fritzler turned back to his project. "I've never… talked about this to anyone. I barely even talk about this with Ben."

"That's kinda me with Adam," Belle agreed. "I don't have any… women in my life. The other queens can be gossips, with a few exceptions. And I'm busy, so I don't see them often. I hope I can vent a little to you because Ben and his dad are similar and I have a feeling we'll have similar frustrations with them."

Mal felt her shoulders slump. She felt like she was being backed into the same corner Ben had put her in. Unlike Ben, though, Belle immediately went to correct herself. "That doesn't have to mean anything you don't want it to be. Whether you never even speak to Ben in day to day life or you're close friends or anything else, I'm happy to finally know you and I'll give him an earful anytime he tries to jump his bounds."

Mal smiled a little. "He's nice, but I don't know if I love him." At least, not normally, when she wasn't under a spell.

"Okay," Belle agreed. "He's a handful."

But that wasn't even it. "I just…" Mal ran another hand through her hair. "Sometimes I think I do like him. But then… I hate him trying to control me. He butts into my head and pretends he's not, he always has to play the moral high ground so I feel like I have no choice but to play the villain, and I gave him a little bit of clearance the other day and we were talking and then he started saying I should forget about my mom and I could just borrow you from him and all this stuff…"

"He was trying to help, but he forgot he needed to listen to your feelings too," Belle surmised.

"Yes!" Mal exclaimed. "And I was trying to talk to him about how upset he was making me and he just kept going 'I don't understand,' 'I think that,' 'I-I-I.'"

"Your mom is still your mom and you have every right to still want her in your life."

Mal stared. "How are you so similar and so different?" she asked.

The corner of Belle's mouth tilted upwards. "Experience," she explained. She leaned forward and patted Mal's hand. "He will learn. Especially at this rate."

Mal chewed her lip a little as Belle stood up. Mal followed her and was surprised when Belle took her wrists, pulled her forward slowly, and then wrapped her arms around her. Mal buried her nose into her shoulder and shut her eyes tight. Belle smelled like books and flowers and earth and Ben and it was all so overwhelming all at the same time.

The door to the art room opened and Mal heard some footsteps and then more silence. She wiggled her head to look over Belle's shoulder and saw Ben standing near the wall with another man nearly his height who had short hair, glasses, and wore a suit similar to Ben's bright blue one, though Ben was now wearing a yellow shirt and dark slacks. "Oh," Mal muttered and pulled away from Belle's embrace. Belle turned and smiled at her husband and son. Mal brushed off her pants.

Ben gestured towards Mal. "Dad, this is Mal. She's the daughter of Maleficent and the last of the four villain kids." He turned to give Mal a little nod. "My dad asked to see you four. I thought you might be in here."

Mal crossed her arms and avoided meeting his eyes. "Are you going to introduce me?" She asked.

"Dad, Mal. Mal, Dad."

"Adam," Adam greeted and took a few steps forward to outstretch his hand. "Pleased to meet you."

"Likewise," Mal shook his hand and then stepped back. Belle hummed and then wrapped an arm around Mal's shoulders.

"Mal paints," she said with a light tone. "She's very talented."

Adam looked behind them at the canvas and Mal saw his eyebrows shoot skyward. "Why, those clouds look real!" he exclaimed and nodded his approval. "Very good."

Mal let out a little laugh and then Ben cleared his throat. "I need to go get ready for the game," he announced. "I'll leave you three together." He began to retreat to the door, walking backwards until he'd rounded the corner.

Adam continued examining the picture. He appeared not to recognize the Auradon-out-of-perspective. "Do you take commissions?"

"Your son asked the same thing," Mal remarked as she crossed her arms. "I don't usually, but I can."

"We might have to contract you," Adam hummed, examining the tiny start of the city. "Is there a way we could get in touch?"

" _Ben can find me,"_ Mal thought. "I'll just be here."

"Well, we need to go find spots on the field so we'll be able to see the game," Adam said to Belle, extending his arm. Mal cleared her throat. "We have a friend who's saving a row. Jane. She and Carlos are, um," Mal brought two fingers together. "They're just waiting for their brainwave."

"Oh, how lovely!" Belle looked up to Adam, who nodded his approval. "And good for them. I did wonder if that would happen when Ben said he wanted to bring people over. It makes me wonder how many people think that they'll never meet their best friends and…" Belle sighed.

"If it makes you feel better, the barrier stifles a lot of anyone's connection."

But Belle only appeared more upset at that.

"I need to put my painting away, then I can lead you to the field and show you where we're sitting?" Mal offered. "Or, you know, you can find it later."

"We'd love to have you along with us," Belle said. She extended an arm and Mal felt herself slip underneath once more.

Both Ben and his mom were uncharacteristically warm.

* * *

"Five minutes on the clock and Auradon is up by two points. Can they hold onto their lead?" The announcer asked as the team retook their defensive positions. Mal watched Ben crouching down on the field as the ball was put back into play and everyone around her began to shout at the top of their lungs.

" _Auradon is more excited for the ball being thrown than they are for you to be king."_

" _Ha-ha."_

He was so tired he was even gasping for breath in their thoughts. Mal rolled her eyes and glanced down the line. Jane and Lonnie were holding onto each other as they screamed and King Adam was yelling so hard his face was passing red on its way to purple. Belle rolled her eyes and patted his shoulder while she watched.

Mal watched the ball almost go out of bounds before it was narrowly saved and shot back towards the striped zone where the dragon cannons were. Everyone went wild around her. People were spinning and stomping their feet as four players all rushed in to grab the ball. Jay, who was on the side farthest from Mal and in between Chad and Ben, put his arms into the air to signal for the ball. Mal saw the glint of light as someone fired it to him and then watched three more players from the other team rush to block Jay as Ben rushed to help him.

" _Don't fumble,"_ Mal jibed.

Ben didn't respond as he came up behind Jay. Jay caught the ball with his paddle and turned to block the oncoming enemies. Mal heard the dragon cannon fire.

Two players dropped to the ground while Jay simply jumped up to avoid the oncoming ball. Ben started moving around to receive the ball whenever Jay started to pass, but the third player from the other team was still rushing towards Jay, hadn't heard the cannon at all, and barrelled into him.

Belle gasped.

The third player rammed Ben onto his two partners who had dropped to the ground to avoid the cannon just as they jumped to their feet. They weren't expecting Ben's weight, though, and stumbled and fell while the force of them jumping back up went straight to Ben.

Mal watched his feet spin into the air above his head and his head slam into the ground. His entire body gave a jolt, and there was stillness.

Pain erupted behind her eyes.

He was hurt. He was hurt bad. She felt him fizzle out like a flame in water and she was left reaching for his warmth when there was nothing there.

Mal collapsed in the stands right beside Adam, holding onto her neck and gasping. Adam sputtered - what was wrong? The pain was so intense that the world was going white and she couldn't hear anything properly. But Ben was lying on the field with his body twisted like he'd been rolled up in something and had it shaken out. And he was still.

She began shoving people out of the way. Struggled away from Adam and then pushed through two boys in front of her before she practically climbed over a group of kids who were silent as the coach and the medical provider hurried onto the field. She knocked Audrey out of the way when the Head Cheerleader took a few steps forward to see if Ben would stand. Jay had taken off his helmet, was crouching down beside Ben, and Mal started to run.

She beat everyone there. Jay hadn't even finished kneeling down and she was shoving him back, rolling Ben on his front, and reaching under his helmet to undo the strap. A bruise was forming - covering the left side of his neck and shoulder. "Mal?" Jay asked. "What are you doing? Is he conscious?"

"Ma'am," the coach took her by the shoulders as she struggled to remove the helmet. "Ma'am, get off the field. We'll take care of him."

"No!" Mal snapped, though she was off-kilter and unbalanced by the pain in her neck. "No, he's hurt! Get away from-"

"Ma'am, we can-"

"Stay back!" Mal screamed, whirling around at them, and flames rushed out of her mouth. The players and the coach, who had come to surround Ben, jumped back. Mal finished unbuckling Ben's helmet and, rather than risking pulling on Ben's neck, used a spell under her breath to snap the thing into two even halves.

Jay crouched down beside her as Mal found the center of Ben's protective armor and ripped it down the middle. "Hey," he whispered. "These guys are trained. Just let them-" Mal's took his face and pushed it away from hers. Then she leaned forward, pressing her ear into Ben's chest, and listened.

Two little thuds against her cheek and then the coaches ripped her away. Mal couldn't yell at them this time. Her head felt bashed in and her neck had been twisted around and her heart felt like it was being grated or shredded and there were two little thumps echoing the biggest relief of her life.

And tears. Tears were starting to fall, soaking her hands and her face and clothes while the medical examiner took Ben's vitals and a stretcher was brought. And Mal sobbed her eyes out until Belle came to lead her away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994.


	11. Cupcakes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994.

It had been four hours.

Carlos tapped his foot on the carpet and avoided looking directly at her, choosing instead to observe her hiding cocoon. She'd taken everything off of his, Jay's, Evie's, and her beds before rolling herself up into a gumdrop-shaped mound underneath Evie's desk. Only her hair poked out.

It was a million degrees and she still was freezing with the bitter cold she knew temperature wouldn't be able to fix. But Fairy Godmother had told her she needed to stay away from the school medical ward after she'd lit three chairs on fire and that Belle and Adam needed to be closest to Ben at the moment.

"So…" Carlos began, pausing in his tapping and then taking a deep breath before resuming. "Are you… going to explain what happened out there today?"

Mal didn't answer. She only shifted and buried her face away.

Across the room, Jay cleared his throat. "I talked to Ben's dad," he began.

"Is he going to be okay?" Mal leaned out of her burrow to stare at Jay. Why had they not told her sooner? Why hadn't someone come to let her know? Had Ben woken up? Why hadn't he said anything?

Jay squinted at her. "He said Ben can't see through spells."

Mal scowled and pulled the blankets back over her head. Jay sighed and took a seat on the floor near her head. He leaned forward and knocked against her hidden skull.

"Quit!"

"What do you think?"

"I think he must have fibbed. So what?"

"Well, how did he know we were there?"

"It's like you said - he can have bugs all around the school. He's a control freak. He butts into everyone's lives and manipulates them into-"

"Mal?" A voice called from the doorway. With another gasp, Mal came tumbling back out of her blanket stronghold. In the doorway was Fairy Godmother, Belle, and Adam. Fairy Godmother frowned at Jay and Carlos, but said nothing as Mal kicked off her blankets and got to her feet.

"Is he-"

"Evie, Jay, Carlos, we need to talk with Mal for a bit. Do you mind…"

Her friends moved to the door, sending her anxious looks. Mal ignored them as they all headed out the door and it was shut behind them. Her knees knocked together. "Is he…" she hiccuped. "Is he going to be alright?"

"Well, it was a bad hit," Fairy Godmother began. "But a bit of magic and he won't have any permanent damage. Just a concussion. He's going to be asleep for a little while and then everything should be fine again."

Mal felt more tears burn her eyes. She sank to the floor, covering her face as she tried to contain herself. "Oh, dear…" she heard Belle whisper as Ben's mom grabbed the tissues off of the desk where they'd been set earlier and kneel down beside Mal.

"It's alright," Adam said, patting her shoulder. "These things can be a bit scary, but he won't die. You don't need to worry."

"We know it can be a bit startling to watch classmates get hurt," Fairy Godmother soothed, putting a hand on her knee. "But we are here if you need to talk to us and Ben will be fine. You'll see."

Mal came to the conclusion that Adam and Fairy Godmother still didn't know what they were talking about and Belle was keeping her lips sealed. They thought she had panicked because of the situation, not the person.

"There was so much pain…" she hiccuped. "My neck just… and he was silent and now I feel so alone and so cold…"

There was a very long pause.

"Wait a moment," Adam said at about the same time Fairy Godmother began with "Don't you mean-"

Belle ran a hand down Mal's spine. "He's going to be okay. You don't need to worry. And you can go sit with him tomorrow, but not tonight because you need to get some rest. These things aren't easy."

"Do you mean to say-" Adam said as Fairy Godmother continued: "Child, do you know what-"

"I thought I'd felt him die." Mal sniffled. "I can't feel him now - usually he's right there and I can kind of… I don't know… brush up against him and know what he's feeling but now it's like he's vanished."

"It's just because he's asleep," Belle murmured. "Adam, Fairy Godmother, could you please act like people and quit gaping like fish?"

Adam pointed at her with wide eyes as he directed his attention to Belle. "Does Ben know-"

"Oh, what a stupid question!" Belle exclaimed. "What, you think he randomly picked the children of Maleficent, Jafar, the Evil Queen and Cruella on a whim? Hoping they'd all turn out fine? Of course not - he had inside information."

"Then she's to be-"

"Nothing of the sort. Ben and Mal are friends at the moment."

"Well, actually, we were-"

"Regardless of what they are, we agreed that we'd love her when she finally came to us."

Adam sat back, looking quite stunned, and then finally focused on Mal. Mal stiffened as she felt his eyes trace along her face, her hair, the little scars peeking out from under her clothes, and he nodded. "Yes," he agreed and a warm tone came to his eyes. "Yes, alright."

Fairy Godmother let out her own little breath. Mal flinched and looked over at her. She didn't know what to expect. Would Fairy Godmother try and put restrictions on when she could see and talk to Ben? Could she do that? Were there mental spells that might-

"I thought your math test was suspicious."

Oh. Mal felt heat rise in her cheeks.

"Ah," Belle laughed. "Math was always Ben's pastime." She put her arms around Mal and tightened them. Mal let herself relax into the hug. It wasn't Ben, but it was close and nice and warm. It almost heated the chill in her fingers as they shook, aching for Ben.

"In his defense, he tried to not pay attention, but we weren't able to shut each other out," Mal mumbled.

Fairy Godmother shook her head. "I suppose… it's your head as well." She shook her head, turning away. "I wouldn't have ever guessed… and with my Jane falling for your Carlos as well…"

Mal shook her head and buried her face away in Belle's arm. Belle kissed her head. "Get some rest," she whispered, then nudged the blanket mass. "In your own blankets, please. Your friends need theirs." She stood up and the other two adults followed her. "We'll be back in the morning to check on him, but now he just needs to rest. You need to, too. Don't stay up, Mal."

They went to the door and opened it back up. Evie, Jay, and Carlos stood in the hall. Whether they'd been eavesdropping or not, Mal couldn't tell. The boys had to head back to their room though. Under Fairy Godmother's gaze, they hauled their share of the covers back to their dorm and left the girls to remake their beds.

"So, what was that all about?" Evie asked once everyone was gone.

Mal paused. Her hands were still shaking uncontrollably. "Um… what?"

"With Queen Belle and King Adam and Fairy Godmother."

"They think I went into shock because I was stunned at the sudden violence."

Evie smoothed down her sheets and sat down. "What happened out there, today, M? I've never seen you… so emotional."

"I don't know." Mal sat down too and shrugged. "It was all… fast. At first I thought it was Jay. Then it wasn't but I just…" she took a deep breath. "That's a lie. Sorry. I'm lying. I just… I barely remember what happened. I just remember that I was terrified all of the sudden. And I don't know why."

Well, that was a lie too. She'd been terrified that Ben had died. That her last words to him had been to not fumble the ball. That she'd lost her soulmate.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not yet."

* * *

Morning didn't bring any comfort.

She couldn't feel him at all. Tendrils of her mind reached out into nothingness, searching for something, anything to cling to. Her mind simultaneously felt wide open to the whims and wrath of the universe, and closed off to her own consciousness. It was a feeling of emptiness beyond anything she'd ever known.

It was everything she'd ever wanted.

No one was reading her mind, or speaking to her in her thoughts. No one was sharing her emotions. No images or memories played back against her will. She was alone, all alone, and it terrified her to think that there were people out there who experienced this every day. They just lived life like this. Alone.

I'll get used to it, she told herself, instinctively waiting for an answer. When none came, she almost cried. The thought simply echoed in the cold, cavernous darkness.

Mal didn't realize she was reacting physically until she heard her teeth chatter. She was shivering, like a frail old woman, and feeling as sickly as one, too. Nothing could have prepared her for this, save being thrust into outer space where all gravity disappeared and there was nothing to anchor her.

She tried as hard as she could to frame this positively. This was exactly what it would be like after the potion had done its work. It would just take a little adjustment period. It would be fine. She would be FINE.

And yet the despair set in. Her entire life had been spent with a partner, one that had grown so close their minds had melded, and now he was gone. She was missing half of herself, and she could feel it in every bone in her body. Perhaps she would get used to it, if the pain of separation didn't drive her insane first.

Against her will, her mind and heart called out for him. " _Ben, please answer me. Please!"_ And yet he remained stubbornly silent. Her vision blurred. " _Ben, I'm sorry. I'm sorry about everything. Just come back."_

This was exactly the weakness her mother had been talking about and Mal was just about ready to accept that she was not strong enough to overcome it. How funny that what she'd imagined would be an incomprehensible strength had brought her to her weakest point. She got up and fell straight to the floor, still trying not to succumb to the anguish of this loss. It was impossible. Tears started falling, and they didn't stop.

That was how Carlos found her, some indeterminate amount of time later. He'd obviously been sent to come check on her. He helped her up, deeply concerned, and half-held her to put her back onto her bed. "I can't do this," she whispered once she was back on earth. "I can't do this without him."

"Can't do...what?" Carlos's next move was pulling out a cell phone, though he was at a loss as to who to call.

"Anything," Mal sobbed. "Oh my God, it's just…" She buried her face in her pillow, as if suffocation would distract her from her other problems.

Carlos waited for a long, long time, then finally set the phone down and resorted to patting her back as she began sobbing out her heart again.

* * *

People were in the dorm. People whispering about her.

"I've never seen her like this."

"Were she and Ben really close?"

"No, they weren't."

"Well, we don't know. It seems like they were talking, but-"

"Mal said she hated him."

"Mal's said a lot of things about him and I'm beginning to wonder if that's just her way of dealing with it."

Mal sat up, held herself up in a push-up position for about ten seconds, then finally remembered how to move her legs and sit down. Her body was like cardboard - her skin paper. There were six people in the room. All were staring at her.

"You're awake," Evie mumbled. She was sitting beside Doug on her bed with the beginnings of a dress in her hands. "Can you… are you going to go off again?"

Mal rubbed her eyes slowly. She and Doug seemed rather… close. "What are you doing here?" she mumbled.

Doug turned red. "I, uh, Evie and I wanted to come and talk with everyone about everything and…" he trailed off.

Mal looked up at Evie. "Is he… yours?"

A light pink color came into Evie's cheeks. "Yes," she affirmed. "Doug is my soulmate."

Mal looked around at the others. Jay and Lonnie were leaning together on the floor by Evie's bed. They looked to have been wrestling. And Jane and Carlos were sitting on the desk with their arms around each other. And Mal was the only one alone.

"I'm happy for you all."

They all waited to see if she'd say more, and then Evie cleared her throat. "Do you… want to go see Ben at all?"

Mal gave Evie a severe look. "Why would I want to go see Ben?"

Evie flinched. "Well, you seemed pretty upset about him earlier. I just…"

Mal shook her head and reached for her nightstand. "No. I don't want to see Ben yet." She snapped open the drawer and withdrew her spellbook with her fingers. Doug, Lonnie, and Jane all focused on it as Mal cracked it open and began flipping through pages.

"What are you doing?" Evie asked.

"I… have something I need to do," Mal said. "So just… give me a minute."

She stood up, wobbled a little, and then tucked the spellbook under her arm and left. No one even tried to stop her, though Evie did follow her to the door before letting her go.

Underneath the kitchen sink, the potion was stowed away. It looked like a perfect brew. Mal set it on the counter and stared at it. She could take this. It was just a little cup of stuff that would taste like grapefruit juice. Maybe she'd live and maybe she'd die.

Be in complete control of her head and thoughts? Check.

Be able to choose what she shared with Ben instead of them picking thoughts out of each other's brains? Check.

Go completely insane and feel forever as if she'd lost a limb?

Mal stared down at the potion, thought of everything it represented, then dumped it down the sink. Ruined.

She opened up the spellbook and traced her finger down the list of ingredients she needed for this spell. Perfect. They were all simple ones.

And now she had her tear of sadness.

* * *

It was past midnight when she finished. A dozen or so chocolate cupcakes with thick frosting and delicate sprinkles. Mal hid them all away and took the smallest one she could find. Then, down through the halls she went, avoiding the moon outside until she found herself by the Hospital doors. A snap, a few cracks, and then a thud when she pulled the door shut. And that was it.

The journey had certainly seemed a lot longer in her head.

Ben was the only person there. His eyes were closed with cotton compresses around his head, matting up his previously sweaty hair. Dark bruises on his skin and a brace to hold his shoulders in place while he rested. And he still looked so beautiful. So gorgeous with the light from outside on his face and the way his chest rose up and down slowly. God, he was alive. He was alive and he was hers. He was alive and she was alive and they had this marvelous opportunity to be alive together.

Mal reached down, traced his chin, started to lean in, and then flinched back. She was spelled. He was spelled. They were both spelled and things weren't actually meant to be like this. And she needed to have a clear head - needed to know what she was actually thinking.

She still squeezed his hand as she unwrapped the cupcake and took a bite.

There was no change.

She looked down at Ben and was still amazed by how beautiful he was. How she hadn't lost him. Everything. The anti-love spell hadn't worked. How?

Mal felt more tears fall down her face as she finally fell into temptation. She kissed his hand first and felt jitters in her stomach that warmed up her stone-cold bones. Then she dropped it, leaned forward, and put a kiss on his shirt over his heart, where she felt the beat flutter against her lips before she pulled back. And when she couldn't stand it another second, she leaned forward to kiss his mouth and held her breath when she did. Weren't people supposed to wake up when kissed? She didn't want to risk Ben jumping up right then.

Why hadn't the spell worked? It was on both her and Ben, right? He had taken the original - did he need to take the reverse spell as well? If so, she wondered if he would, or if he'd just blow her off. How could he be so simultaneously infuriating and captivating?

She kissed him again, wondering if he'd wake up again, then resorted to leaning her forehead against his, staying as quiet as she could and waiting to see if she would be able to feel him in her head at all.

* * *

"This is ridiculous!" Jay exploded when he entered the hospital wing the next morning to find Belle, Adam, and Mal all sitting beside Ben's bed, waiting. "We've been looking for you everywhere, but now I think it's rather stupid we didn't just come straight here."

Mal ignored him and simply sat and stared at Ben's feet at the end of the cot, twiddling her thumbs in her lap. Her lack of reaction seemed to make Jay more angry. "Are you going to explain this all to us?" he gestured at Ben. "I thought you hated his guts and never wanted to see him and he was a control freak. Now you're in meltdown mode, and-"

"It's all a bit complicated, Jay," Belle soothed as she ran a hand through her son's hair. "Mal's just in shock a little."

"I don't mean any disrespect, your majesty, but you should know that-"

"Shut up," Mal said suddenly. She leaned forward. What had been that sound?

"Shut up?" Jay demanded. "What do you mean, shut up? You blow us off for three days-"

The door opened a little wider as Evie and Carlos appeared. Had that been it? But then-

Mal suddenly became aware of a pounding headache and her eyes ached like the room was way, way too bright. She spun, putting her hands to Ben's cheeks, and the pounding in her own head let up a little. Ben's eyes fluttered and then opened. He winced.

"He's waking up!" Belle gasped, taking Adam's hand. "Oh, goodness. What a miracle. It's only been-"

Mal leaned over Ben, running her thumb through the hair around his ears, and watched him start to focus. When he saw her, the corner of his mouth flicked up. "Oh," he mumbled. "Mal."

"Ben."

He didn't make any effort to sit up as she felt him continue to wake up. His headache increased, but then she felt his presence again in her head and felt her tired eyes sting.

" _You're here."_

" _I am."_

" _What a way to wake up."_

" _I can't believe you're back."_

" _Would it be too much for me to ask for a hello kiss?"_

Mal glanced back at Belle and Adam, who were smiling as they waited for them to start talking aloud. Her friends had gathered at the foot of the bed and looked like a faint breeze would knock them out. They'd never seen her be affectionate about anything. " _Your parents are here. And my friends."_

Ben sat up and Mal and Belle panicked and leaned forward to stop him. Ben found Mal's hand on his cheek and squeezed it. " _Does it really matter?"_ he whispered.

Mal leaned in and kissed him. Someone - probably Jay - stumbled back in shock. Ben sighed against her mouth. Mal wanted to stay there, marvelling in the velvet press of his mouth, but she withdrew and then turned a little red under Adam and Belle's gazes. And that was before she managed to actually glance at her friends.

"Hold up," Carlos pointed at her. "Take a seat. You sit down. Right now."

Mal squeezed Ben's hand and sat beside him again. Carlos spread his hands. "What the heck is this?" he demanded. "You just kissed him! You're holding his hand? What is going on?"

Mal shrugged. "It's… a bit of a story."

"A story," Evie replied in a flat tone. "Apparently we've gotten a lot of those lately."

Mal turned a little more red. Ben squeezed her hand and struggled to sit up a little more. Both Mal and Belle flinched forward to stop him as he cleared his throat. "Mal and I…" he began, then glanced over at Mal.

Mal swallowed. "I've been lying for a while," she admitted and looked at the floor. "I… was afraid and hurt, and I felt like Ben was trying to control me, and I really, really wanted to do something so mom would just… be proud of me."

"No, no, no," Evie said, cutting Mal off. "We don't need that story. What is going on with you and Ben, and for how long?"

Mal glanced over and Ben. He gave a one-armed shrug. " _I don't know what we are."_

" _Me neither."_

Mal looked up at Evie. "We don't know yet."

"How can you not know?"

"Well for a while he was chasing me and I wanted nothing to do with it, then we had a…" she glanced sideways at Ben again. "-Conversation. But it ended badly, and we weren't speaking. And here we are."

"For how long?" Evie asked.

Mal chewed on her lip. "Since we were like…" She trailed off. Ben took a breath of frustration beside her.

"Four," he said. "I think we were both four."

"Four?" Evie repeated and her eyes bugged out. "You said-"

"I didn't like him!" Mal exclaimed. "And I didn't know who he was - he didn't know who I was until, like, a month ago. And I tried to ignore him because I thought he was on the Isle and was terrified he'd rat me out, and-"

"You son of a gun," Jay hissed, glaring at Ben. "You told us you could see through spells."

Ben shook his head. "No, Mal just hates French and isn't good at keeping her head clear when she's frustrated."

"Oh, goodness," Evie sat down on the bed across from Ben's. "We spelled your soulmate."

"Hold on, what?" Adam demanded.

"It's okay, Dad. It's all-"

"It spelled me too," Mal admitted. She glared at Evie's feet. "I told him to just say he was going to save it for later and walk away, but he took it anyway because he knew it'd carry over." She turned around and picked up a second chocolate cupcake off the table she was sitting beside. "Which reminds me - will you please take this? Please? I just want my head back."

Ben squinted at it. "Is this the spell that severs…" He trailed off and squinted at her. "Because I'm not taking that one."

"No. It negates the love spell," Mal sighed. "Please, will you take it? I tried to take it off me but it wouldn't come off and I don't want to start anything knowing that it's all fake."

A smile tugged at Ben's lips. He didn't move to take the cupcake. Mal's hand shook. "Ben," she pleaded.

"Mal, the spell's already gone."

Her hand fell. "What do you mean?"

"You kissed me last week and it came right off. I've just been pretending it's still on ever since. I was shocked you didn't notice when it happened."

Jay put his face in his hands. "I am so confused," he mourned and began pacing up and down the aisle.

"So Mal spelled Ben but accidentally removed her spell, and-"

"Why was he spelled?"

"I knew it was suspicious that-"

"Who authorized all of this?"

Ben pinched his lips together and then glanced at Mal while everyone continued bickering. " _Does this mean you're going to stop plotting to destroy my kingdom? Or is my head still on the chopping block since I was a colossal jerk?"_

Mal frowned and traced her fingers back under his chin, where his neck was still bruised. " _I can't possibly put your head on the chopping block after you were slammed into the ground like that, I guess."_

" _Ah, I see. So, when did things change?"_

A thousand pictures filled Mal's head. The late nights and the blanket pile and her red-eyed reflection and the potion going down the sink… Ben's head hitting the ground, over and over and over. His body spasming….

His fingers found a place under her chin and brought her back into Auradon again. She met his hazel-blue gaze and felt all the bad things wash away. " _I put you through a lot, huh?"_

" _That seems to be pretty common of you."_

" _I'm sorry."_

"Earth to Mal!" Carlos snapped in her ear and Mal jumped.

"What?"

"We were trying to ask you what you're going to do now?"

Mal closed her eyes and laid her head down on Ben's side. "The plans are off. I'm going to go to bed right here, and we'll figure everything else out later."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994.


	12. Stuffed Dragon

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994

**This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994.**

" _Will you go to my coronation with me?"_

" _Ben, it's three in the morning."_

" _I can't sleep. Will you go?"_

" _Go?"_

" _Coronation. Cathedral. Big party that means nothing and will have no effect on Auradon history whatsoever."_

" _Hmm. I'll consider it."_

" _Is that your way of saying 'yes, but I'm still pissed you woke me up'?"_

" _I'll ask Evie if she can make me something for it."_

" _She can pull it off."_

" _Well, she might go overboard. She's already whining about her dress - saying it has to be historical."_

" _You know what would be historical?"_

" _Hmm?"_

" _If you went in your Isle clothes."_

Mal laughed to herself in the dark and then rolled over to set her chin on her pillow and see outside. " _I kinda want to sneak out and see you."_

" _You'd never make it back before Evie got up."_

" _I could leave her a note."_

" _Tempting."_

Even though she felt lonely and missed Ben, she felt her eyes drifting closed again. " _Maybe when you're back in your own room and not the hospital."_

" _Are you going to fall asleep again?"_

" _I haven't slept in, like, three days."_

" _Well I had one more thing I wanted to ask you."_

" _What?"_

" _Will you be my girlfriend?"_

" _Aren't I?"_

" _I hadn't formally asked, so I had to check and-"_

" _Ben. Go to sleep."_

* * *

Mal visited Ben early the next morning before class and then passed through all of her classes chatting with him. However, he was tired from his sleepless night and the rather intense injury, so by the time she got to art class, he was dozing off and leaving her lonely again.

Her skin felt cold as she cautiously kept checking on his presence in her head, making sure he hadn't vanished again. He fell asleep and it was like he was barely there and the pinching loneliness threatened to hurt her.

Mal found another larger board and took it to her plastic-covered table. She laid it out, crossed her arms, and took a deep breath. She'd done it. She'd gotten through this mess, she had Ben, and she was going to stay in Auradon now. So why did she still feel so upset?

That was an easy enough answer.

Mal took a charcoal pencil and traced a curved line around the edge of the board. A rag and some thick paint that she mixed with a little glue to make it the consistency she wanted. Then she began to attack her canvas. One slash here. Muted blotches here. She added red in clumps to make it look like blood splashed somewhere and mottled grey in others to make it look like the sun was trying to poke through.

No amount of shakiness could deter her from her task as she took up a brush and more traditional methods, mixing the paint colors on the back of her arm in different shaded splotches up to her elbow. Her Isle jacket had been thrown on a chair at some point, so she was only wearing a green tank top as she painted, smeared, and dabbed her artwork.

A hand landed on her shoulder. It was Mr. Fritzler. His eyes were wide, he was a little white, and his hair looked like he'd just released it from a vice grip. "Mal," he whispered. "Are you alright?"

It was as if he was speaking another language. Was she? Was she what? Alright? The quality of holding everything together? Of being and remaining functional and competent and… stable? Was stable the right word? Steady, unmoveable… Mal shuddered. What had gotten into her?

Behind Mr. Fritzler, the other eightish students in the class were staring at her. Many of their faces were white too and one was crouching a little behind his desk as if he thought something might hurt him. Their gazes flit between her and the board. Mal turned to see it too.

The large board was now filled with a bloodstained dragon, whose talons had begun to resemble iron. Vicious green eyes with dots of yellow and veins of red. Its face was lizardlike, but somehow cold, malicious, and disapproving. It was coiling around a figure in the center who, while mostly deformed and colorless, had green splashes for eyes and purple streaks of hair. And their mouth was open, struggling for air.

She herself was breathless as she returned her gaze to Mr. Fritzler. "I… don't remember doing that. I just started going - I don't know what's happening to my head."

Mr. Friztler's gaze softened. He waved everyone back to their tasks and moved his hand to her forearm to help her sit down. Then, after finding a water bottle in one of the cabinets for her, he knelt beside her chair.

"Is everything alright?" he asked in a whisper, making sure his voice wouldn't carry over to the other students.

"I think so," Mal whispered back, twisting the cap on and off the water bottle before taking a sip to distract herself. "Everything is fine."

"Is it really?"

"I think - er, well - thought so. I just don't know what happened."

"Art commands us to think about things we'd sometimes rather put off."

"That's poetic."

"You can be skeptical."

Mal frowned and focused on unscrewing and rescrewing the water-bottle cap on and off, on and off. Her hands felt steady again and her head was less cloudy, but she still felt like some sort of wound had been opened up in her. Something that she'd thought was healed but still needed more time. Like running on a twisted ankle too soon after spraining it.

Mr. Friztler patted her shoulder and got back to his feet. "Maybe you should clean up and head out early," he suggested. "Take a walk to clear your head. You can continue your next masterpiece tomorrow."

It was a clear and unwelcome dismissal. Mal nodded, set the water bottle onto her desk, and went to the sink to scrub the rest of the paint off her arm. Mr. Fritxler took back the glue and paint bottles but left her to clean out her rag and the brushes. Finally, she took the plastic sheet off the desks to fold and then lifted her canvas up to take to the standing rack.

The dragon's eye - the most completed, detailed part of the picture - seemed to glare at her. Like she'd done something to it. Like it was hurt. It hated her.

" _Why do you hate me?"_ Mal asked. " _I made you."_

" _Funny how that goes around."_

That was not the voice of a dragon in her head.

Mal thumped her head against the wooden rack and squeezed her eyes shut. All strength went out of her and the sense of loneliness began to overwhelm everything else. She began to spiral, tighter and tighter like the dragon was coiling around her, and then someone new broke through the strain.

" _Mal,"_ Ben said. " _Come see me."_

* * *

Ben's bedroom was a lot less homely now that the nightstand was piled with painkillers, hot and cold pads, and patches for Ben's bruises. Ben tried to sit up when the door opened and smiled at her as she shut it. She hovered beside the entrance with her jacket held tight in a fist and took him in. Brighter eyes, brighter smile. Focused stare and rosy, somewhat flushed cheeks. Better.

"Fairy Godmother has been working magic on you," Mal hummed as she finally remembered to go to Ben's bedside.

"Literally," Ben nodded. "They're hoping to have coronation on Sunday. So I have two more days of rest."

"That's only a week off."

"Yup." He reached for her hand and she gave it to him without much thought. Instead of holding it, he yanked her in. Mal gasped and tried to avoid falling on him as he pulled her into his side. Once she was beside him, he leaned his forehead against hers. "Hey," he mumbled.

Mal smiled. "Hello." She gave him a quick peck and then turned her head to look at the ceiling a little.

"I woke up and you were upset. What happened?"

Mal chewed on her cheek and focused on her breathing. "I guess I'm just… struggling still."

Ben frowned against her cheek. "Is it something I did?"

"No, no," Mal shook her head and sighed. Her fists balled up in the sheets. Her toes curled against her shoes. "It's just…"

Ben leaned back and waited. It was nice to see him waiting instead of just blurting anything out. Not poking and trying to steal the answer from her head. But Mal still couldn't get the words out.

Ben took her hand again and squeezed.

"I miss my mom," Mal blurted out, all in a rush. "Or, I don't miss her, but I miss what I was hoping we could be and I feel like I let her down, and I-" Heat built up behind her eyes. "I feel guilty."

She awaited his retort, knowing he would probably become incensed again, and then a little sadness built up on his side of the connection. She forced herself to meet his gaze.

Ben pressed his forehead to hers again. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I wish I could fix this."

"You're not going to suggest you can fix everything?"

Ben sighed. "No. But I'm here if you want to talk about it. Or maybe we could arrange… I don't know… a call home?"

"Maybe after Coronation." Mal turned and rolled into him, hiding her face away in his shirt. He used the arm he was lying against on the bed to reach out and brush against her face as the other fell around her waist and began to trace soothing trails up and down her back. She exhaled. "I really thought that would do it," she admitted and felt the fire under her skin cool until it threatened to freeze her solid. "I thought… I would bring it to her… and she'd say…" Mal's voice caught and came out as a sob.

Ben pulled her closer. "She'd say…" he prompted.

"That she was proud." Mal covered her face with her hands even though she wasn't crying. "I don't know… you're right. She would have just… been proud for five minutes and then forgot as she went off murdering and plundering, but… those five minutes would have been heaven."

Ben took her wrists, pulled her hands from her face, and then pressed tiny little kisses that felt like a warm snowstorm onto her face. "It's going to be okay," he soothed.

Then, softer, letting her drown herself in his presence as much as she wanted. "You'll be okay."

* * *

 _Gong, gong, gong._ Mal covered her ears as the bells kept ringing. She squeezed her eyes shut against the millions of people waving for their attention. The phones and cameras and people throwing things at them. Already, four roses had collected at Ben and Mal's feet in the coronation carriage. Beside her, she felt Ben take her arm, loop their elbows together, and then bring her hands down from her ears.

"It's okay," he laughed. "It's just twelve o'clock. Your hearing is safe." The last few echoes of the bells faded away and were replaced by the people screaming for attention, cheering as they passed.

" _Liar,"_ Mal grumbled as she covered her ears back up.

The cathedral was this big, glorious white church whose windows had been updated and replaced to display the heroes of Auradon and several emblems of their stories. The main window above the door held a collage of spectacular blues, pinks, and greens. A long blue carpet had been rolled out of the cathedral and down the marble steps to end at the line of the road. There, a footman waited to open the door for them.

Ben got out before she, shaking the footman's hand before turning to reach for her hand. Mal tried twice to gather up all the skirts of her dress in one hand before she gave up and simply kicked her feet a little with each step, hoping to put a little distance between her and the heavy fabrics. Ben took her hand as soon as she was within reach and saved her from a fall as she failed to find the last step off the carriage.

"Prince Benjamin," the footman inclined his head once they were both standing straight. "Miss Mal."

Ben's smile outshone the sun. "Oh, Lumiere," he sighed and reached forward to hug him. "No more of that, please."

Mal saw a few sparse tears in Lumiere's eyes. All these people who were so happy for Ben on his big day. She waited for them to break apart and then shook hands with Lumiere before she and Ben began to climb up the steps of the cathedral, where Belle and Adam were waiting.

When she was within arm's reach, Belle reached forward for Mal's hands and tugged her into an embrace. The sound of cameras grew - Mal could already picture the headlines that would be generated by Belle's open affections.

" _Don't worry about it. Let them talk."_

" _Well, it's not like I can stop it."_

Belle released Mal after kissing both her head and her cheek once and Mal glanced at Adam, wondering how he'd want her to greet him. She outstretched a hand to shake, but Adam merely ignored it and pulled her into a second hug. She closed her eyes. Was it some sort of law that everyone in the royal family had to be this warm?

Adam hugged her almost longer than Belle and only withdrew when the footman cleared his throat, signaling it was almost time for Ben to head inside. Mal withdrew and watched Ben exchange quick embraces with his parents.

"This was a good idea," Belle sighed, sparing a glance at Mal. "And I know you will do many, many good things for this kingdom."

Adam clapped Ben's back as he hugged him. "You're going to make a fine king."

"Well, I learned from one of the best," Ben replied. They stayed together a few more seconds and then Adam released Ben and held out his arm for Mal. She looped her arm through Adam's, gave Ben a kiss on the cheek, and then together, she, Belle, and Adam left Ben to enter the grand hall.

Someone was playing the organ, but not at full force. The room was filled with chatter that died and then spurted back to life as Belle and Adam entered. High up in the rafters, Evie, Jay, and Carlos were sitting with Doug, Lonnie, and Jane. Even from the floor, Mal could see Evie was shaking with joy.

To the side of the dias, there were a few sparse seats left for the more important royals. Fairy Godmother was seated on the stand, holding a hand to her heart as she watched Mal try not to trip through the hall. Hopefully, that meant she looked more graceful than she felt.

Adam led her to the chairs and Mal began to laugh. One was set apart from the others - instead of blue, it was black and had a stuffed purple dragon on the seat, who had its head leaning on a sign that read 'Reserved'.

"Whose idea was this?" Mal asked, picking it up and smiled as the dragon's droopy head bowed down before her.

"Mine," Adam said.

"Mine!" Belle exclaimed, nudging him.

" _Actually, it was mine,"_ Ben said from outside.

Mal laughed and took a seat, draping the dragon across her lap. Belle and Adam linked arms and turned to take their seats on the dias. Mal was just running her fingers over the dragon's plush head when she heard someone sniff to her left. She glanced over her shoulder - it was an older woman with olive skin, a blue satin dress and matching gloves, hat, and purse, who was pinning a rose onto her bust. Mal glanced away. Had she been sniffing at her, or-

"Interesting how they've let all the vermin in," the woman muttered under her breath.

Mal bit down on her cheek. Should she say anything? Ignore her? Ask her what she'd said?

" _Who is it?"_

" _I don't know. She's got darker skin."_

" _Pink or blue?"_

" _Light blue. Kinda sky-colored."_

" _Queen Leah. Don't say anything. She's really… old."_

Mal snorted aloud and the older woman glanced sharply at her. She schooled her expression to indifference and focused on smoothing down the spines on the dragon's back. Not a word, she told herself. Not a word.

But then Queen Leah cooed as someone stepped past Mal and took the seat in between Queen Leah and Mal. They were wearing pink with a sparkly white bodice and white fingerless lace gloves. "Oh Audrey," Queen Leah expressed. "You look so lovely! Give grammy a kiss, dear."

Mal's snapped her head to the side as Audrey leaned forward and pecked Queen Leah on her cheek. " _Ben,"_ she said. " _I'm sitting beside Aurora's mom and daughter?"_

" _I know, I know. It's not assigned seating."_

" _How much longer?"_

" _Can you hold out for thirty more seconds?"_

"What are you doing here?" Audrey sneered when she turned and found Mal.

" _My mom invited you."_

"Belle invited me," Mal repeated softly. She pointed up at the dias. "Ben's mom."

Audrey turned green. Mal wasn't sure if it was sickness or envy. "Ben's mom invited you?" she asked.

" _You met at Family day."_

"We met at Family day."

Audrey's hands curled into fists. She turned away with a pointed 'hmph!' Ben let out a frustrated sigh. " _This is a mess,"_ he mourned.

" _Hey, don't be upset. It's your coronation day, and it's time for you to walk out."_

" _Thanks, Mal."_

On cue, trumpets blared. The organ picked up full-force, and the Auradon Middle and High school chorus picked up in the high pews. The doors opened and Mal could see Ben standing, pausing in the doorway as the chatter stopped and people leaned forward to see him. She leaned forward too and forgot Audrey was beside her when she took in just how _perfect_ he looked. Not a blemish, a hair out of place. Not a trace of lint on his new suit nor the hint of doubt or fear on his face.

" _Look at my boyfriend looking all perfect."_

He smiled and began to walk. " _Ah, so you do notice."_

" _Maybe from time to time."_

A camera on the ceiling panned down to capture his smile as he walked. People stood up as he entered the room, then bowed and curtseyed in a ripple as he passed. It was like watching a very, very slow wave crest. Adam and Belle rose ahead of time, with Adam extending his hand to help Belle to her feet. Mal set the plush dragon on the floor in preparation for Ben to walk by.

She stood when he was no more than ten feet away with everyone else arising around her as well. She couldn't curtsey very well, so she squatted a little and inclined her head while he passed. An elbow hit her arm. Audrey, trying to knock her over.

" _Look at my girlfriend, looking all gorgeous."_

" _Who cares about how I look? Did you see me keep my balance there?"_

Ben knelt on the first step of the dias then and their conversation fell slack. He glanced up at his parents and watched the Fairy Godmother stand, bow before King Adam, then remove the crown from his head. She turned to Ben and lowered it on his hair, before adjusting it to make sure it was on his head right.

" _You look stunning."_

Adam removed the bell jar from around Fairy Godmother's wand. She picked it up with a flourish. Mal couldn't deny she felt a little lingering sadness. After all, that had been her hope. Now, she supposed, she might not ever see her mom again in person.

Fairy Godmother tapped both of Ben's shoulders. "Do you solemnly swear to govern the peoples of Auradon with justice and mercy for as long as you shall reign?"

"I do solemnly swear," Ben agreed.

"Then it is my honor and my joy to bless our new king." Fairy Godmother waved the wand over Ben's head and then stepped back. Ben got to his feet, turned, and the crowds began to cheer. Roaring, deafening cheers.

Mal got to her feet again, clapping, and missed the blur of color beside her until she saw pink rush behind Ben. As Fairy Godmother made to set the wand back in its holder, she was knocked aside. People gasped. Audrey stood in the center of the dias for one triumphant moment, holding the wand above her head in one hand.

" _What just hap-"_

" _Get out of the way, Ben!"_

An explosion occurred. The ground rocked as thousands of sparks erupted from the tip of the wand. Audrey lost control of it. The wand pulled her from one side to another. She was dragged right into Adam and they tumbled off the platform and onto the floor. Queen Leah jumped up, shrieking in panic as Audrey and Adam rolled over each other. Audrey still held strong to the wand.

"Child, what are you doing?" Fairy Godmother shrieked.

Ben tried to rush forward, but his dad and Audrey were dragged into the chairs. Audrey released the wand when one of the folding seats snapped closed against their impact and tipped over, slamming onto her head. The wand continued to spark and roll like some sort of spinning firework. It whizzed away, singing the blue carpet, and came to a sputtering stop at Mal's feet.

"He's spelled!" Audrey shrieked, pointing at Ben. "Someone help him - she's got him under her spell!"

"What?" Belle asked.

"What?" Ben echoed.

Guards hurried forward and seized Audrey, hauling her to her feet. She started crying. "Please! He's under a spell! Someone help him! Mal's got him under a spell!" She wrenched her hand free from one guard. "I have proof! I saw her brewing it!"

Mal and Ben exchanged a look as Adam frowned. "You saw her?" he asked, tone full of doubt. "You have proof?"

Audrey pulled her phone out of a pocket of her dress. She wiped her eyes and then showed the screen to Adam. His face twisted a little and he looked over at Mal, then up at Belle. Both women moved forward. Mal peered around to see the photo. In it, she could see the top of her head over the countertop in the school kitchens and could see the cabinet under the sink open in front of her. Nothing else. But then Audrey swiped right and Mal could see the cabinet under the sink open, with the pot she'd been brewing with and the potion's shimmering surface in plain sight.

Adam and Belle both looked at her with frowns full of concern. "What's this?" Adam asked.

Ben stepped up beside them and glanced over the screen. Then he turned to Mal. "What is that?" he asked.

Mal couldn't make her mouth form the words.

Ben's face twisted and he brought his finger up to point at her. "You made that potion," he growled.

"What potion?" Belle asked.

"It's a love spell!" Audrey declared. "That's why he broke up with me - she's spelled him!"

"I'm not under a love spell," Ben shook his head.

"Well you wouldn't know - they're very-"

"Audrey, that spell wasn't for him," Mal shook her head and covered her face. "It was… It's… It was for me."

"What were you doing?" Adam demanded.

Her hands shook and her eyes stung with tears. "I was…" she hiccuped. "I was going to try and destroy my soulmate connection."

The crowd gasped as one. Belle's hands dropped to her side and tears stung Mal's eyes. Ben crossed his arms to glare at her. "Why would you do such a thing?" Fairy Godmother whispered.

"Because I-" Mal took a deep breath. "Because I felt trapped. I thought I was under a spell and I felt like he was invading and taking advantage of me. I felt like my life was being spelled out before my eyes and I had no say in it… I felt like I wasn't being listened to and I wasn't smart enough to stand up for myself and I knew my mom would kill me if she found out and… I didn't understand if what I was thinking and feeling were even my own thoughts anymore. I felt like I was losing control of my own head."

"You could have killed yourself and him," Fairy Godmother said. "This is like… attempting open heart surgery on yourself, child. You can't tamper with soulbounds."

"I can't believe you," Ben said. "What, the warning on the page wasn't enough? Purple thumbs and projectile vomiting? You'd been performing spells for a week and you thought you could burn out your soulbond without a single mistake?"

"Ben, I was frustrated and confused-"

"I'm frustrated and confused! We go back and forth, back and forth, and I don't understand why you're so-" He turned and let out a frustrated, animal growl, kicking at the floor.

"Ben, I dumped it out!"

Silence. One heartbeat. Ba-thump, ba-thump. Mal imagined she could hear Ben's too. Ba-thump, ba-thump. He didn't move.

"I dumped it out," Mal repeated. The tears were falling more freely now. "It's gone. I poured it out - I didn't even check to see if I made it right. It's gone, I swear."

Ben crossed his arms and turned around slowly. Mal took a step forward, stumbled over her dress, and ended up on her knees in front of him. She reached for his hand, which he gave without really offering it, and stayed there, squeezing it. "It was after you got hurt," she admitted. "I… couldn't do it anymore. I got rid of it because you were gone and it-" her voice broke with a sob. "It was the worst thing that ever happened to me."

Audrey's hands went up to her mouth in shock. Across the hall, whispers picked up. Mal ignored them all.

"I felt so… lonely. Being by myself. And it was freezing and I kept waiting for you to butt in and boss me around or share useless fun facts or flirt or whatever, and there was nothing. Ben, I couldn't - can't - live like that." She kissed the bottom of his fingers and whispered. "Please forgive me. Please, Ben."

Ben's hand tightened around her own. He pulled her to her feet and wiped the tears from her cheeks with his thumb. "You're not going to do it again, are you?" he asked. Mal shook her head and hiccuped so hard it felt like her heart had jumped. A smile passed Ben's lips.

That smile quickly faded when the lights in the hall dimmed and turned green.

"Oh dear," someone said, their voice echoing all around. "What an _awkward_ situation."

**This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter 1994.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story is a collaboration with Harry Potter Fan 1994


	13. Dilly Dilly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey Everyone,
> 
> As you all know, this is a collaboration story between Harry Potter Fan 1994 and I and this is the Last Chapter. We would appreciate it if you would leave us a review telling us how we did.

**Hey Everyone,**

**As you all know, this is a collaboration story between Harry Potter Fan 1994 and I and this is the Last Chapter. We would appreciate it if you would leave us a review telling us how we did.**

Having her mother appear in the center of the room, forming from a pillar of purple smoke and the sputtering of green flames while she was standing and crying with Ben beside her was probably one of the worst experiences of her life.

Here she was, bound down by her ridiculous dress and weaponless and with tear-stained cheeks, weaker than she'd ever been before.

Everyone in the cathedral screamed. The doors were ripped open and the alarms began blaring as the emergency exits were shoved open. Ben seized Mal's arm and pulled her back, but Mal tripped and stumbled over Fairy Godmother's wand, which was still smoking as it lay in the middle of the aisle. Mal snatched it up and turned to find Fairy Godmother. She was standing beside Belle and Adam and unable to move. Her face was ashen.

Maleficent's eyes fell on her. She strode forward with her black robes billowing out. On the Isle, where there was no magic, Maleficent had learned to power walk so that the fabric would fly out. Now, it billowed with no breeze at all. "I knew something was wrong with you," she said. She flicked her scepter to the right and Mal felt her body jump to her right. She flew through the crowd, knocking an older man to the ground with her foot, and slammed into the pillar. A roar echoed through the room. Who was that? It sounded… beastly.

She struggled to her feet and looked back to her mother, who was in between Adam and Ben, both in open stances and looking like they were going to slice her open with claws neither had. From the left, Evie, Jay, and Carlos appeared.

"Audrey must have broken the barrier when she lost control!" Jay shouted above the screams of the retreating citizens. "We've got to get Ben and Adam out of there - she'll kill him!"

Mal reached down, found her knee through the lace, and ripped everything below that point off. Evie whined. "Mal!"

"Not now, Evie," Mal snapped, yanking all the lower layers out from the bodice. She ripped the waistline by accident and the entire bottom part of the dress fell a few inches, connected onto by sparse strings to the top. Mal cursed at it, finished her alterations, then kicked off her shoes and rushed towards Ben and Adam as Maleficent's staff began to smoke.

Maleficent shot a beam of light towards Ben, but Mal jumped in front of him at the last second, waved the wand, and it bounced back and made a pillar explode. The last few people trying to hide out in the hall rushed for the exits.

"Mal!" Maleficent exclaimed, eyeing the object in her daughter's hand. She switched the scepter to her left hand and outstretched the right. "Give me the wand."

Mal felt a tremor go through her entire body. "I'm sorry, mother, but I can't do that."

"Of course you can, baby," Maleficent cooed. "You don't need to fend for the awful Auradonians. They never cared about you before."

Mal closed her eyes. "I'm sorry, mom, but I can't…"

"Why not, pumpkin? They left you. They left us!" She slammed the butt of her staff into the ground. "All those nights of starving, fighting in the streets, nothing to our names. Don't you want to make that right?"

"This is right."

"Siding with the people who only pulled you off because they wanted to make you queen?" Maleficent asked. "I always knew there was something off about you - you always watched the TV a little too hard. It was as if you heard something… more." She wrapped her fingers around the gem in her staff. Her smile was soft, but her eyes were hard. "Why do you think I gave instructions to your friends and not you? And yet, you still almost made me proud. Almost overcame that pathetic weakness."

Maleficent's fingers waved a little as she beckoned Mal closer. "Give me the wand, baby, and prove you were always strong."

Ben's fingers wrapped around her arm.

"Mal, they don't care about you. They only want a queen. After everything they did to you and everything they've done. And do you think they'll care about anyone else? Your friends will go back to the Isle. Nothing else will change."

But Ben's hand tightened on her arm and she knew it wasn't true. "Not while Ben is King. We have a long list - starving people, trapped children, and stobbing child abuse. The Isle will change. Whether you'll watch it happen is another story." Mal pointed the wand at her mom. Maleficent's eyes narrowed.

"Think carefully, baby," she warned. "If you give it to me, you'll have a place at my side. An equal. You'll be earning my love."

"You don't earn love," Mal spat. She waved the wand and a beam of green light erupted from the tip. Maleficent ducked as Mal slashed and a thick black line appeared on the wall instead. She fired back a blast of green lightning and Ben and Mal were forced to break away to avoid it.

"Ben!" Jay yelled. He hefted a sword that had come off one of the decorations on the wall and tossed it at him.

" _Oh, it's going to cut my hand, it's going to cut my hand."_

" _Grab it right_ _there!"_ Mal threw the mental image of the hilt at Ben and he seized the sword in midair, acting on her instincts alone. Then he paused, looking surprised, before taking up a new fighting stance.

" _I have no idea how to use this."_

" _Follow my lead."_

Mal drew the wand in a slicing motion and another dark line appeared in the floor when Maleficent jumped back. Lightning came from the sky, but Mal raised the wand and it dispersed above her head. Adam was tossed a sword and together, they all began to close in on her. Evie, Jay, Carlos, Ben, and Adam with swords and Mal keeping the wand at the ready as they all made the circle around Maleficent smaller and smaller.

"Last chance, pumpkin," Maleficent sneered. "Don't let mommy down."

Ben lunged forward with a clumsy stab. Maleficent dodged out of the way, seized his wrist, and sent him toppling straight into Jay and Carlos, who had to lower their swords to avoid stabbing him. Evie lunged forward and managed to slice Maleficent's cheek.

The blood shocked everyone. Maleficent was open-mouthed as she dabbed at the blood - the dark black blood - dripping down her cheek.

" _Is your blood black?"_ Ben asked.

" _Not last I checked."_

" _She's possessed. We need an exorcism."_

"Mal!" Fairy Godmother exclaimed, raising a hand from where she had retreated behind one of the remaining pillars. Mal drew back and tossed the wand towards her. Maleficent lashed out and the wand was shot down from midair. An explosion blew everyone back into the walls. Mal's head spun, but she still heard the groaning of rock on rock and then felt the earth shake when the upper balcony gave way. The marble floors cracked under the impact as wreckage spewed across the floor. A pipe burst in the floor and made a fountain of smelly water.

Ben groaned in her head.

Mal lifted her head off the floor and spotted the wand lying near the fountain. It had not been destroyed. She moved her fingers toward it, even though it was twenty feet away.

A loud clicking sound echoed off the walls of the chapel. Mal watched black shoes traverse the floor with singed black robes dragging along behind them. Maleficent scooped up the wand. "You fools," she gasped as she heaved for breath. "My own daughter… betrayed me."

Mal groaned and tried to prop herself up on the wall. Her entire body hurt. She tried to breathe, but her chest refused to comply.

"Falling in love is weak!" Maleficent exclaimed. "Soulmates make you weak! If you had truly not had one, you would have been strong enough to resist the pull of complacency! You would have seen through the palace's plots to mold and control you!"

Mal was finally able to force her lungs to open up and took a gasping breath. "I'd rather be weak and happy than strong and miserable," she gasped. There was a sword near her, half-buried under the rubble. Mal reached for it and felt the iron tingle under her skin. She wrapped her fingers around the hilt.

"Weren't you happy with me?" Maleficent asked. Behind her mother, Mal saw a shadow stand up behind the water. Honey-brown hair, ruined suit. Ben. "I would have made you my equal. You could have been endowed with the power of the universe. But you failed me."

"Good," Mal said. She pulled the sword out of the rubble with a scrape.

" _Mal,"_ Ben realized. " _The spell. The old spell."_

"Sword of Truth, fly swift and sure, that evil die and good endure!" Mal exclaimed. Maleficent turned pale.

Mal drew back with the sword. Maleficent raised Fairy Godmother's wand, but it began to spark and shake as soon as she attempted to use it. Her hand turned black and began to wither to the bone. She shrieked and tried to drop it, and as she did, Mal launched the sword across the room. Maleficent reached with her staff to stop it, but it sailed past her.

" _Watch for the hilt because you need to grab it right-"_

Ben snatched the sword out of the air, hefted it over his shoulder, and then cut Maleficent's head off. None of his clumsy hesitance with the weapon showed.

Maleficent's head began to disintegrate as it fell. Before it hit the ground, it had become nothing more than a bunch of ash. Her body toppled and then hit the ground with a poof, spilling more ash and dust out while the robes fell flat against the floor. Maleficent was gone.

Her staff remained standing by itself for a moment, so perfectly balanced had it been. Ben caught it before it hit the ground - they really didn't want any magical objects causing more explosions - and stood there, staring at Maleficent's remains with her scepter in his left hand and the black-bloodstained sword in his right.

" _That felt really good,"_ He thought and Mal caught glimpses of all the anger he'd been harboring towards whoever his soulmate's mom was since his youth. Then he looked up and found Mal's eyes from across the room, with all that distance, and all the anger vanished.

" _Mal."_

He laid the sword and scepter beside the wand and ran to her. Her brain was so foggy that it missed most of the transition. One moment he was across the room and then next he was on his knees in front of her and reaching for her face. She ran her fingertips down his collar, checking for scratches in between the rips of his suit and shirt. He examined a bruise on her head with concern. Her stomach turned a little when she traced the speckles of half-dried black blood on his neck. He felt it and stopped examining her physical wounds to look into her eyes and try to gauge her emotional ones.

" _You're alright."_

" _I'm fine. Are you?"_

" _I don't know."_

She played her fingers up and down the hair at the nape of his neck. He settled his hands on the skin in between the rips of her ruined dress.

" _You've been right about a lot of things."_

" _So have you."_

" _I never said thank you for ruining my life."_

" _I never said sorry for keeping it miserable."_

She laughed a little breathless laugh. The smile that spread across his face was the best pain medicine she could have asked for. He leaned in and she leaned in and neither was really sure who kissed first.

"That's not weird at all," Jay said as he stumbled over, minding a hurt leg, to collapse against one of the pillars. "It's not at all like Mal's been possessed by someone entirely different."

"Totally normal," Evie agreed. "Just like the last two weeks. This is exactly what has happened every day of our lives."

"Sure hope not," Ben drew back to mutter before he went back to kissing her. Mal hummed in agreement.

"Seriously, guys. It's freaky. Stop," Carlos demanded.

"What's freaky?" Belle asked as she and Fairy Godmother helped Adam over to the group. Mal leaned back against the wall, focusing on breathing, and Ben laid his head down on the busted floor beside her as his head began to hammer.

"I never thought I'd see Mal kiss anyone, cry, or defy her mom and all of those things have happened in the last twenty minutes," Jay explained. "In short, they need to stop so we can establish part of that normalcy.

"I'm not crying." Mal dabbed at her cheeks to be sure. "And you were the one that came over here."

"Well, we thought you would want to see us after-" Jay gestured at the black robes on the floor in the distance. Mal shut her eyes and nodded.

"Are you alright?" Belle asked, reaching forward and taking Mal's hand.

Mal nodded. "Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's still a lot to figure out and it'll be weird for a while and Ben needs to clean her blood off of himself, but it'll be okay." She found Ben's hand on the floor beside her and squeezed. His skin was cool. She opened one eye to squint at him. "Are _you_ alright?"

" _I'm_ dizzy," Ben hummed. " _Still a little weird_ to think I just _decapitated_ your _mom_."

"What?" Fairy Godmother asked. "Are you okay? Can you hear us okay?"

"You're going back and forth," Mal told him. "I got all of that, but they only got pieces."

" _I was in a coma last week. Give me a break."_

"Oh, so you're going to make me translate for you?"

" _That's the real reason I brought you to Auradon."_

Mal threw her head back, laughing at a joke no one else would ever understand.

* * *

Audrey was taken into custody for a few hours but in the end, let off with a warning and a small charge of intent to harm Mal. Mal, Ben, Jay, and Adam were all taken to the hospital while the rubble from the hall was cleared, the weapons, staff, and wand were all recovered, and Maleficent's remains were gathered and taken away.

" _What do you think she was possessed with?"_ Mal asked Ben as the doctors slid an IV of painkillers into her arm.

" _She disintegrated when that sword hurt her. I bet it wasn't a demon. She must have infused herself with something dark and nasty a long time ago."_

" _You know a lot."_

" _I had an obsession with demons at, like, age nine."_

" _Regal."_

The day after the coronation, Ben's crown was recovered and Fairy Godmother came to deliver it to him. Mal saw the conflict in her eyes when she entered the hospital room to find Ben curled up beside her, fast asleep. "He's getting headaches," she explained as Fairy Godmother cleared her throat. "The doctor has been giving him stuff to help him sleep it off."

"Well, I do think you are supervised well enough," Fairy Godmother took a deep breath. Mal's lip twitched - this was the same woman who had trusted them to not let Jay and Carlos into their rooms, whose daughter had let them into her mother's classroom unsupervised, and who she'd snuck past on her way to the kitchen or to Ben's room several times. Whatever she thought was 'good supervision' was clearly not even enough to tell where Mal was at any given point.

"Fairy Godmother?" Mal asked after their headmistress had set the crown on the table to the side of the bed and made to leave. "Why couldn't my mother use the wand?"

The mischievous smile surprised Mal. "Only those with good intentions can use the wand. That's why I never worried when you were trying to steal it."

Huh. Apparently Fairy Godmother's supervision was a bit better than Mal had assumed.

* * *

"Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green. When I am king, dilly dilly, you shall be queen." Mal played her fingers up and down Ben's spine and through his hair as he laid against her stomach, alone in the quiet of his room. His arms were curled up behind her back. She could tell he was waking up because his fingers were rubbing little circles and he tried to remember where he'd fallen asleep and he was calling for her even though he wasn't fully coherent yet.

"Call up your men, dilly dilly, set them to work. Some to the plow, dilly dilly, some to the fork. Some to make hay, dilly-"

" _Can you sing it like this?"_ Ben asked. Mal switched over.

" _Some to cut corn. While you and I, dilly dilly, keep ourselves warm."_

Ben lifted his head up only to plant a kiss on her ribcage. Mal frowned - the movement gave him a headache that was pretty annoying for her as well. "How long is it supposed to take for brains to heal?" she grumbled.

Ben laughed. "A really, really long time. _You're lucky I don't have my head wrapped and I don't have to sit in a dark room_ for three months."

Mal combed his hair down again. It didn't ever need to be brushed because she kept combing it out with her fingers. "I suppose," she mumbled and then chuckled. "You need to remember to not switch back and forth. Your parents are getting irritated I have to fill them in."

Ben groaned and buried his face in her belly. "Talking out loud hurts my ears," he complained. " _Another week and I'll switch back."_

" _Want me to turn out the lights?"_

" _Please."_

Mal snapped her fingers and the curtains flew closed. While Ben was asleep and she was still on medical leave from school, she'd been dabbling with magic a little. It was nice. She settled back against the sheets with Ben's too-soft bed caving underneath her and him lifting his head a little to press more butterfly kisses on her belly.

"If your parents come in, they might think this is too suggestive."

" _Ma-al,"_ Ben complained against the noise before settling his head back down. " _I could suggest a lot more if you wanted."_

" _I know you could."_

Ben pulled one of his hands from behind her back to trace a little pattern on her hip. His fingertips slipped underneath her shirt hem, but went no further. Mal sighed and relaxed with a sigh. All was well… all was well.

" _Do you want to talk yet?"_

Mal hesitated. They'd been avoiding topics lately. The fact Ben had killed her mother, the fact all of Auradon knew she was the new king's soulmate, and the looming pressure of 'what now'? Mal wasn't sure she wanted to leave her bubble of safety in sickness yet.

" _Is that a no?"_

" _I don't know."_

" _We can wait."_

Mal traced her fingers down Ben's chin though, and sighed. " _You killed my mom."_

Ben lifted his head. He was very conflicted about this matter. Sad for her, angry about Maleficent's treatment of her, feeling like she deserved the ending she'd gotten, shocked and disgusted he'd been the one to do it, horrified Mal had watched. Mal, for the most part, had been brushing her own conflicts away. It was easier to analyze Ben's struggles than focus on her own.

" _You miss her."_

" _She was my mom."_

" _But you don't want to miss her."_

" _No, I just wish there was more to miss about her."_

" _You want her back?"_

Mal hands stopped and stilled on Ben's back. She forced herself to breathe and then hugged him tighter to her. " _I think I want someone I never had."_

" _Can I help at all?"_

" _No. Not yet."_

" _Do you even want me around after that?"_

" _Yes, I do."_

Ben hummed, gave up on lying beside her belly, and pulled her down so their heads were level. His tiny kisses were now falling on her neck, cheek, and hair. " _Auradon knows who you are, now."_

" _I suppose that did happen."_

" _It was very subtle."_

Now that Ben was beside her and not on top of her, Mal didn't have anything to busy her hands with. She tried to curl one hand up to be around his neck, but her wrist started to ache. Ben snatched it and began to press kisses to that, then, while Mal revealed the feel of the skin on his face.

" _The big reason I didn't want anyone to know who you were is because I didn't want word getting to my mom. There's no reason for me to have a problem with Auradon knowing now."_

" _But there is. Why?"_

He stilled his touches to wait for an answer. Mal cupped his cheek.

" _You feel like there's an expectation now."_

Mal sighed. " _I'm not ready to marry you. You have… a lot of baggage that comes with the prize."_

" _Not ready to be in the public eye."_

" _Not ready to be queen."_

Ben let out a sigh. " _Well, that's okay, but is it no forever? Or just five or eight or-"_

" _I don't know."_ Mal stared at the ceiling. She knew she was being selfish, but she'd much rather have Ben without the politics. Kiss him without being photographed. Dates without knowing she had to share him with the country. Sneaking off to be with him without the insinuation that hundreds of people were planning her wedding, their kids, her future with him.

" _May I propose a compromise?"_

" _You sound as if you're proposing a new regulation."_

" _You're good at politics. Sure, you don't like the public part of it and you haven't had any formal training, but you see problems and solutions. You're cunning. And I totally understand you don't want to be attached to me in any romantic sense - any way that the public would mark you up and plan out your future for you - but would you be willing to work with me? We don't have to have a public relationship - tons of soulmates just end up friends. Our relationship, however you want it, could just be us. And we could work together. That way you have control of how people see you, time to adapt a little, and you get to help call shots, not just watch them be made."_

" _What would I do?"_

" _I'd put you in charge of the Isle of the Lost and let you go crazy."_

Mal hummed. "I do like the sound of that," she said aloud. Ben's headache returned full-force.

"Ugh!" he groaned. "You jerk." He let his head slam into the pillows. Mal chuckled. She turned and began touching his jaw again, running her finger along the bones.

"I love you," she told him. And that surprised more than anything - more than even finding out who Ben was. She loved a boy from the other side of the bridge, whose heart was made of gold even if his intentions ran into the dirt sometimes. And this wasn't a love spell, or him messing with her head. It was pure, plain, and simple. She loved him.

"That's a beautiful sentiment and one I have literally waited years to hear, but I'd much prefer you said it without the noise," Ben said. His cheeks were pink though - prideful little snot.

" _Your prideful little snot."_

" _Ugh!"_ Mal rolled her eyes. " _I love you."_

" _I love you too."_ She kissed his nose and then waited, hovering by his mouth until he moved forward to meet her.

And it was about that point Mal decided that this was something she could do forever.

**Please leave a review for Harry Potter Fan 1994 and I. Also, she has several other show-stopping Bal stories up on her page. Some of you may know her as the author of "The Fire in her Eyes" or "Spies, Lies, And Hopefully No One Dies." Both incredible stories. Check her out and send her some love!**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a review for Harry Potter Fan 1994 and I. Also, she has several other show-stopping Bal stories up on her page. Some of you may know her as the author of "The Fire in her Eyes" or "Spies, Lies, And Hopefully No One Dies." Both incredible stories. Check her out and send her some love!


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